Hi everyone!
Last month, I experienced my second (partial) solar eclipse. I was only 5 years old during the first one in 1999, but I still remember what a huge event it was. This time, I watched it with my kids. My oldest son is now the same age I was back then.
What struck me most was how quickly nature reacted. The birds stopped singing, and the chickens went inside, as if night had suddenly fallen. Apparently, nobody gave them the eclipse schedule!
It’s funny how a completely predictable astronomical event can still feel so magical. I'd love to hear your eclipse stories. Reply to this email and let me know.
Enjoy this edition of the newsletter,
Xavier
🤓 Cool Stuff I Found on the Internet
Shademap
Pick any spot on Earth, choose a date and time, and this tool shows you where sunlight should land and where buildings or trees will block it. Fun to use, and seems like the perfect tool for house hunting.
IKEA names
How does IKEA come up with its product names? Well, they have a webpage about it! Turns out their sofas get Swedish place names, bookcases get men’s names, and children’s products get named after animals and nature. After picking some names, the company screens them for trademarks and awkward meanings abroad before settling on a name. The webpage says IKEA is naming 2000-3000 new products per year, holy cow!
Dark tourism
This article asks the question: why do places with a dark history become tourist attractions?
Bathrooms worth archiving
This fun website crowdsources 3D scans of... restrooms! Contributors have already scanned over 100 public bathrooms, and let me tell you, some have really cool designs!
Elevator Saga
Ever been frustrated while waiting for an elevator in a busy building? This game allows you to program elevators yourself. I took this challenge and quickly learned the complexity behind routing elevators around in large buildings.
⏳ On this day...
1666 - The Great Fire of London came to an end after destroying 13,200 homes and around 85% of the city within its walls.
1882 - Around 10,000 workers marched through New York City in America’s first Labor Day parade. It became a national holiday 12 years later.
1977 - NASA launched Voyager 1. Nearly five decades later, it remains the most distant human-made object from Earth.
⚡️ Energy & Environment
Fascinating lives of... flies.
Most of us despise flies. But they do more than buzz around bins. Hoverflies pollinate plants while their larvae hunt crop-eating aphids. Other fly families recycle waste and pollinate plants that bees can’t easily reach, including cacao. So without flies, we’d be short on chocolate!
Electrify more, use less
Here's an interesting paradox: by electrifying cars, heating, and industry, we could reduce our total energy consumption. Why? Because things like electric motors and heat pumps are more efficient and waste less energy than combustion.
🧠🤖 Artificial intelligence
AI;DR
Ever been annoyed when someone sends you unedited output from an AI model? I certainly have been! This post proposes that we just ignore copy-pasted AI answers from our colleagues. Because "if you’re not bothered enough to review and edit it... then I’m not going to bother reading it."
AI adoption is broad but shallow
Generative AI has spread into a lot of jobs but has transformed few. A recent survey of nearly 14,000 US workers found that AI is applied inconsistently. In most professions, at least 20% of workers are using AI tools. But that adoption is not consistent. But fewer than 3% of individual tasks had adoption above 50%. Even colleagues doing similar work often use AI for different tasks or not at all.
AI amplifies the team
Google’s 2025 DORA study, based on nearly 5,000 technology professionals, found that AI amplifies the organization around it. Companies with strong platforms, clear workflows, and aligned teams benefit from this, as they get more productive. While weak controls or processes turn AI’s faster output into instability.
Autonomous randomware attack
An attacker used a team of AI agents to breach an enterprise network in under 10 hours, chaining more than 50 known attack techniques together. From stealing credentials to commandeering the victim’s AI services. This is something we've been seeing a lot lately, AI models getting more and more resourceful. For better and for worse.
👽 Space
Interstellar journey
We’ve been struggling to design spacecraft that could visit our nearest galactic neighbour, Alpha Centauri. A nonprofit asked AI for help. The assistant proposed a plan that uses electric thrusters to slingshot around the Sun. As a bonus, sails would catch the strong sunlight to accelerate even more. Definitely a cool idea, but still far from being a fully-funded mission!