Fun Stuff

The Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized how we interact with our surroundings, making our apartments, homes and cities smarter and more connected than ever. And by doing so, IoT is enhancing residents’ convenience, efficiency, and quality of life.

Imagine a world where your home appliances, security systems, and even your lights are interconnected to communicate with each other. That’s the power of IoT in smart homes. IoT devices are connected to the internet to enable automation and control. I’m sure you do this now. You can remotely adjust your thermostat, monitor your bedroom lights, and maybe receive alerts if there’s a water leak in your home.

Video doorbells, another IoT-powered innovation, allow you to see and communicate with visitors remotely, adding another layer of security and convenience.

The FAA has issued a “Special Airworthiness Certificate” for a new model of electric car. And no, this isn’t the latest Tesla model. This certificate will be for the prototype of a flying car! The California-based company Alef Aeronautics will test its Model A road/air fully electric car.

Let me start off by saying that if you’re planning to cycle the mean streets of Chicago, you’d better be ready to keep your head on a swivel. Over the last two years, from April to November, I’ve ridden about 40 miles a week, mostly on-street. I consider myself lucky in that I’ve never experienced any issues outside of some popped tires and a few close encounters with driver-side doors. That having been said, I always operate under the assumption that my experience is atypical and will never recommend it to anyone else without several stipulations. Here are my stipulations.

• Wear a helmet. I don’t care if they look stupid; put some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stickers on it or something so you don’t get heckled by local teens. I don’t know what’s cool with teens, but they probably like cartoons.
• If your bike has been gathering dust for a while, take it in for a tune-up and have them help you fit the seat height.
• Start with shorter rides on less congested streets and build from there. For the first couple of months, all I did was bike to/from the gym until I felt I had a good handle on how to react to your everyday traffic situation.
• Know your current physical limits. Being completely gassed while 10 miles from home is rough enough, but throw the added element of reacting to a series of 2-ton death machines piloted by Tiktok enthusiasts into the mix, and you’re looking at a new level of danger.
• If you’re looking for a lazy ride, you’d best find a good trail somewhere that isn’t overrun by dog walkers and the dreaded MAMIL. Riding on the streets requires vigilance and the assumption that if someone around you could do something stupid, they will do it.
• If you have a destination in mind, get at least a rough map of your route ahead of time. Mellow Bike Map is a great resource for this and has sent me down some decent-to-good routes that I never would’ve taken otherwise. If you want real-time navigation, grab a handlebar mount for your phone and some Aftershokz bone conduction headphone to get directions without plugging up your ears.
• Hand signals are good, and I would recommend learning the basic ones, but always assume that nobody knows what they mean. Check behind you before changing lanes, and just pull over to the crosswalk if an upcoming merge/turn will put you in an uncomfortable spot.
• Regular bike maintenance is important. I personally check the tire pressure before every ride and clean/re-grease the chain once a month.
• This might be putting the cart before the horse, but especially if you’re riding on narrow tires, learn to swap a tire tube on the fly. This is something I recently found out is relatively simple if you carry limited tools around with you, and it would’ve saved me quite a few headaches.

Hopefully, that’s not too scary! I won’t recommend street cycling to everyone, but if you want to open up the city a bit and are willing to put in some effort, it’s a great option. Just steer clear of Ashland and Milwaukee; those are death traps.

A plane powered by plants? Seems like science fiction, right? A recent investment from airline giant United may bring that closer to reality. Bioengineering company, Viridos, is experimenting with creating sustainable aviation fuel (or SAF) from algae.

United has committed $5 million to further research and development of this algae-based fuel. This investment aims to ensure SAFs power all United flights by 2050. The upside to using algae instead of other plant-based solutions is that the algae can be grown in the ocean. There is no need to invest in agriculture or farmable ground to compete with the food industry. And United isn’t the only company planning to switch to SAFs. The US government has issued a tax credit for the development of this fuel alternative, and there are plans to switch government planes to at least a 10% mixture of SAFs by 2028.

Viridos has successfully developed microalgae that outproduce natural algae to create the oils used in fuel. These microalgae are already producing more of this oil by orders of magnitude. Generally, SAFs are created with excess cooking oil or plant byproducts. Microalgae is one of the alternatives to grow the SAF industry to replace fossil fuels in planes and jetliners. The process is projected to have a 70% smaller carbon footprint than current biofuel manufacturing processes.

So, yes. Sometime soon, you may be on a flight powered by plants!

I fell down a rabbit hole when I pondered what the most common emojis are.

Let’s back up. I’ve started to use the . + Windows Key combo to find emojis more often than I used to. You know, for Teams Chats and cute lil’ emails. For me, this says a lot. I’m from the long-ago-time when < 3 represented a heart. And it was cooler to type less-than-three than to insert a ❤. So my uptick in emoji use MUST mean that other people are adapting, too!

Will – Greenshot Tankas
Print screen button pressed
Pixel selection precise
Greenshot context menu
Copy To Clipboard, sublime
Tears of joy, from eyes, erupt

Zaid – My Fave Valentine
Dear Airpods,
You have squirmed your way into my life. I use you every day and always know where you are. I make sure you’re fully charged and ready to take on the world with me. You are my partner during my morning walks through the streets of society. Airpods on; World off.

When my kid was born, she quickly amassed an impressive collection of the most adorable little toys. An incredibly soft, stuffed mouse, a set of colorful, plastic stacking rings, TWO silicone avocado teethers, Sophie the giraffe, and many others. “How lucky we are!” we thought to ourselves, as the people in our lives so generously gifted our baby with such pleasures. This went on for a few months, and we added to the collection ourselves. But at some point (I cannot pinpoint exactly when), it became apparent that children’s toys begin as lovely, benign little trinkets and then suddenly become the most irritating torture devices you’ve ever endured. If you are a parent, you may slowly close your eyes, sigh, and lower your chin toward the ground. You get it.

If you are not a parent, I have made a little chart proving my theory. I’ve chosen two toys from each age group to include in the dataset and listed them below with their assigned Annoyance Quotient (AQ). The average of both toys represents that age bracket in the graph. Feel bad for me; several of these reside in my home.