Kickoff For April 18, 2022
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
For a few days last week, you might have noticed that you couldn’t reach this site via mondaykickoff.com. That was all on me. Like the idiot I am, I forgot to renew the domain. Which I was fortunately able to do last Monday. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen again!
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Space
What Happens If a Space Elevator Breaks, wherein we learn about what it takes to get into orbit and the possible results of a catastrophic failure of an interesting, but fanciful, way of doing that.
Dawn of the Space Lords, wherein Corey Pein describes the problems and perils of allowing the uber wealthy and their commercial interests to control the space above us and access to it.
Walmart, But for Space, wherein Rand Simberg looks at the advantages and benefits of lower-cost, reusable launchers and spacecraft.
History
Medieval Photoshop, wherein we get a glimpse into the techniques used by woodcut designers in the Middle Ages to edit and manipulate their creations.
How the DC-3 Revolutionized Air Travel, wherein we learn how that airplane was the luxury aircraft of its time and made longer flights viable, but was versatile enough for more rugged tasks.
Americans Have Always Celebrated Hacks and Swindlers, wherein Hugh McIntosh looks back at a time when Americans admired fraudsters, more as redeemable antiheroes than as people they aspired to be.
Ideas
Back To The Victorian Future, wherein Iwan Rhys Morus explores the idea that, taking our cue from the England of the 19th century, many expect entrepreneurs to have our best interests at heart and that their ideas and technology will provide us with a better future.
A surprise story is a self-exploding confidence game, wherein Vera Tobin examines the plot twist and why, when it’s well done, a plot twist that grips audiences in the same way a bad one turns audiences off.
How to Want Less, wherein Arthur C. Brooks explains why success, and wanting more, never truly satisfies us or brings us lasting joy.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.