The Athens of the South
Worth Reading, we have a podcast with astronaut Steve Smith on Finding Mastery. Worth reading are a few articles of experiences in Nashville that are worth your time visiting. The Nashville Parthenon and, as a bonus, a replica of the Antikythera mechanism. And as always, a few other ideas worth your time.
Worth Listening
Steve Smith on Lessons from Outer Space and a Near Death Experience | Finding Mastery
Steve Smith, one of America's most experienced astronauts and spacewalkers, with 4 spaceflights and 7 spacewalks to repair the Hubble Space Telescope and build the Space Station. What I enjoyed about this podcast was his approach to leading a simple life. There is clarity to the way Steve speaks makes it plain to see what he values in his life. Also, hearing an astronaut articulate how seeing the Earth from a different perspective changes your thoughts about everything when you return.
Worth Reading
Nashville Parthenon
In the beginning of August, I spent a few days in Nashville, TN. While there, I was able to visit the replica of the Parthenon. The Parthenon in Nashville is the world's only exact-size and detailed replica of the original temple in Athens, Greece. So when Tennessee celebrated its hundredth year of statehood with the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Nashville took advantage of its nickname "Athens of the South" and built the art building as a copy of Athens' most famous building and the epitome of classical Greek architecture.
Initially, the Pantheon was planned to be temporary, but the community enjoyed it so much that a permanent replica was started in the 1920s. The final interior wasn't completed until 2002, which houses a 42-foot statue of Athena gilded in gold. Walking into the main room was breathtaking, and even explaining it now, it's hard to put into words what the feeling was like.
Antikythera mechanism Replica
A bonus of the Parthenon in Nashville was a small exhibit on the Antikythera mechanism. They walked through the stages of research and reconstruction of the device. The mechanism is often touted as the "first computer," but it's a bit misleading because computers today work vastly differently. A more accurate description is the first analog computer. The additional articles I've shared here go into greater detail on how the device may have worked. From the guardian, "displayed the motion of the universe, predicting the movement of the five known planets, the phases of the moon and the solar and lunar eclipses."
Bonus Articles
Scientists may have solved the ancient mystery of the 'first computer'
A Model of the Cosmos in the ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism
Worth Watching
His Dark Materials | HBO
Based on author Philip Pullman's beloved trilogy, His Dark Materials follows Lyra, a brave young woman from another world. Lyra's quest to find her kidnapped friend leads her to uncover a sinister plot of a secret organization, encounter extraordinary beings and protect dangerous secrets. I saw a few scenes of this show on VFX artists react from the Corridor Crew. Specifically, they call attention to the animal modeling and the detail the team put into making it look and feel free. Specifically, they did a lot of work to add natural-looking fur and shading. One of the tricks they used was puppets on the scene to give actors and the VFX teams better references from which to build the animations.
Worth Pondering
"People of reason may have to concede that modern science has its limits. Not everything of value can be weighed and measured. People of faith may have to admit that we can no longer afford legend over history, or obedience over curiosity."
― Brian Muraresku, The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name
More Feeding Frenzies!
With the upcoming release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, I started thinking about an idea. How far away are we from being able to engineer Spider-Man.
Sure we can escape into sci-fi territory very fast, but what technology or research is being done that could plausibly get us to a Spider-Man-like ability set. In this Feeding Frenzy, we take stock of research being done to bring the powers of Spider-Man to our world.