Episode 569: Desert Suns and Distant Moons

Real Life Devon Gone again, off doing what families do. Probably eating responsibly and not playing Magic with middle schoolers. We'll get a full download when he returns from the wilds of familial bonding. Steven Steven melted in Palm Springs last weekend. Like, cartoon puddle of clothes and glasses melted. It hit 112°F, and not in the fun "desert dry heat" way—it was more like a hairdryer set to regret. But he survived the heat and a surprise 65th birthday party for his mother-in-law. (Note: surprise party for a 65-year-old in 112-degree weather? Bold.) To escape the heat and socializing, Steven brought along Timeline by Michael Crichton, tore through the whole thing, and now he won't stop recommending it. According to him, it's "a pleasant, rollicking adventure of death and destruction in the Middle Ages." Classic beach read, if your beach has trebuchets. Ben Ben relived his childhood glory this week by annihilating two 12-year-olds at Magic: The Gathering. Old deck, newer rules, zero mercy. He's still basking in the smug warmth of that victory and considering building a commemorative statue of himself out of old booster packs. In nerdier news, Ben continues to experiment with Bazzite OS, a Linux distro that somehow convinced Forza Horizon 5 to run smoothly. He also tried out Wheel World, a cell-shaded, bike-themed Zelda-like that nobody asked for, but he's glad it exists. Streaming from PC to handheld? He recommends: Install Sunshine on your PC Install Moonlight on your handheld device Plug in with Ethernet if you can Pray to the latency gods It's working so far. Maybe this is the future. Maybe this is now. Future or Now Ben brought in a fascinating bit of anti-AI-fakery this week. Researchers at Cornell have developed a way to embed invisible "codes" into light, which act as hidden watermarks in videos. Basically: lighting at press conferences, buildings, or even Zoom calls could carry encrypted signals that make it easy to verify video authenticity later. It's subtle, elegant, and extremely cyberpunk. The best part? You won't notice the difference. But your editing software will. Check it out: 🔗 Cornell's light watermarking research Steven countered with some good ol' fashioned outer space optimism. NASA's Europa Clipper recently flew past Mars and successfully tested its radar system (REASON)—which can detect structures beneath planetary surfaces. On Earth, we use radar to find oil. On Europa, we might use it to find oceans... or something hiding in them. More here: 🔗 NASA's radar success en route to Europa Book Club  This Week: We read All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury. If you want to feel joy, sorrow, cruelty, and loss in a tight 3-page gut punch, this one's for you. It's a story about kids, Venus, and the cruelty of the sun—or lack thereof. Also, the 1982 educational film adaptation is still seared into our brains. 📖 Read the story 📺 Watch the adaptation 📚 Anthology source Next Week: Transience by Arthur C. Clarke. We're diving into one of his lesser-known works about change, memory, and humanity's inevitable drift. Clarke has a way of making even the quietest stories feel cosmic. 📖 Read Transience 📚 Anthology source If your air conditioner broke, if you crushed children in a card game, or if you accidentally invented a futuristic video authentication system this week—welcome. You're one of us now. See you next time. Stay weird. Stay cool. –The Team