Thursday Things: Take a Trip Edition
4 February 2021. Vol 3 No 5 By Dan McGirt. #78
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You can’t get there from here. Photo by Sergii Gulenok on Unsplash
A Curious Journey through the Story of the Passport This is an interesting article on the history of passports. The passport as we know it — and the requirement to have one to travel from country to country — is a relatively modern development. Really only beginning during World War 2. What would a world without passports be like? We’ll probably never know in this age of being tracked, traced, and monitored everywhere we go. But it wasn’t always this way.
Even at the dawn of the so-called ‘golden age of travel’ of the 20th century, passports were scarcely used and people could travel pretty much anywhere without one. Perhaps the only person on earth who still has that kind of liberty is the Queen of England…
Read the whole thing!
These days, unfortunately, our passports aren’t getting much use. Until the world opens up again, we may have to stay put. But our minds are still free (for now…) to roam where they will across the earth and even beyond.
A rocket ride to Mars! Has this woman just invented the rocket that will take us to Mars? The unique design of the plasma thruster could enable spacecraft to travel to distant planets much faster than they can now.
Now approaching Mars! Source: NASA
One of my favorite rides in Disney World back in the day was in Tomorrowland. It was Mission to Mars. Visitors sat in auditorium seats around two round screens — one in the floor, one in the ceiling — and the whole experience simulated a (very quick) rocket mission to Mars. You could look down and see Earth below you and look up and see the approach to Mars. The ride was retired in 1993.
But real missions to Mars appear to be on the horizon. And research physicist Dr. Fatima Ebrahimi may have just the thing to speed up the journey.
Dr Fatima Ebrahimi has invented a new fusion rocket thruster concept which could power humans to Mars and beyond.
The physicist who works for the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) designed the rocket which will use magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles - electrically charged gas - into the vacuum of space.
According to Newton's second and third laws of motion, the conservation of momentum would mean the rocket was propelled forwards - and at speeds 10 times faster than comparable devices.
Will her fusion thruster make the trip as fast as it was in the old Disney attraction? Probably not. But I’m excited to see the real thing coming closer to reality!
Vampires, Muppets and prequels: The Great Gatsby’s new life out of copyright We discussed in an earlier edition the many creative works that entered the public domain under U.S. copyright law at the start of the year. The most famous book affected was undoubtedly The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Authors have lost no time in making use of the the text with prequels, sequels, and other uses of this Jazz Age classic:
On 2 January this year, the day after The Great Gatsby entered the US public domain, The Great Gatsby Undead was self-published on Amazon. Like F Scott Fitzgerald’s hallowed novel, it is narrated by Nick Carraway, but in this version, according to the promotional blurb, “Gatsby doesn’t seem to eat anything, and has an aversion to silver, garlic, and the sun”. Gatsby, you see, is a vampire.
Vampire Gatsby? That was totally predictable. But there is also The Gay Gatsby, popular demand for a Muppet version, a reinterpretation with Vietnamese-American characters in the 1920s, and Nick, a novel telling the story of Gatsby’s narrator Nick Carraway before he met Jay Gatsby. And much, much more to come I’m sure! The public domain is fun.
Speaking of reading: Why Reading Books Should Be Your Priority, According to Science
More than a quarter--26 percent--of American adults admit to not having read even part of a book within the past year. That's according to statistics coming out of the Pew Research Center. If you're part of this group, know that science supports the idea that reading is good for you on several levels.
Yay, books! Among other benefits, Yale researchers “found that those who read books for 30 minutes daily lived an average of 23 months longer than nonreaders or magazine readers. Apparently, the practice of reading books creates cognitive engagement that improves lots of things, including vocabulary, thinking skills, and concentration. It also can affect empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence” all of which helps you live longer.
And what will you do with your 23 extra months of life? I know! Read more books!
That’s several extra years of life right there! Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash
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