In this edition of Mike's List: They want you to move so bad they'll give you cash, a house or a special visa! Plus: home food printing, 3D-printed vitamins, catching crooks with cookies, and more! Get the newsletter here.
Nick Jaynes, a mutual follow on Twitter, is using the picture I took of my kitchen in Oaxaca as his Zoom background. Love it!!
I bet @MikeElgan didn't believe me when I said I'd make his kitchen my Zoom background. pic.twitter.com/FkLgKwZzII
— Nick Jaynes (@NickJaynes) May 11, 2021
Shatner spent five days recording a StoryFile, a type of interactive video created by a company also called StoryFile. Portions of the recording, which were captured by 3D cameras, will be “tagged” using StoryFile’s proprietary system. Later, Shatner’s ghost will be beamed to his family members, to fans via the internet, and possibly to museums and entertainment venues. People will be able to ask Shatner’s ghost questions. StoryFile’s system will “play” the answers, creating the illusion that William Shatner lives, even long after he passes on.
Welcome to the new spiritualism.
A hundred years ago, the idle rich of Europe and America indulged a fascination with the great beyond. A quasi-religious movement called Spiritualism, which began in the 1830s and rose in popularity during times of great trauma, such as during the U.S.’s Civil War. The movement peaked in the years between 1918 and the early 1920s, when Spiritualist ideas spilled over into mainstream popular culture.
The rich and famous went nuts for conjuring the dead 100 years ago. And now, they’re at it again.
Another reason is that nearly everyone wears masks. And there's plenty of space, so everyone can keep their distance.
(We're lucky that we have an apartment to go to. Otherwise we'd been standing outside the airport like hundreds of other travelers right now.)
A privately owned railway in Japan called the Choshi Electric Railway operates on only four miles of tracks. Business is bad, so the company is trying to monetize in part by selling rocks from under the tracks. In cans! Why, Japan? Why?