What I learned on the internet this week
Or, did you know there's going to be a Moon colony? Because I missed that.
This is a not-so-minor feat: Two newsletters in about a week-ish. Welcome back to the curiosities of my corner of the internet in the past week.
1. Next stop: The Moon
Ever reading something and come across a casual, if confidently-stated, aside — like saying the sky is blue — that’s news to you? This past week, I was reading something forgettable when I saw mention of how NASA plans to return humans to the Moon in 2025 (for the first time since 1972) to establish a permanent colony. I guffawed aloud. “Hold on, what?! A permanent colony? On the Moon? Starting in 2025?”
If you knew this all was happening, feel free to fling proverbial tomatoes right now. I haven’t been completely living under a (moon) rock, I swear, but I suppose the simple reason I missed this Moon colony news — and space news more broadly — is that it feels both completely irrelevant to me and like a bit of science fiction.
Except it’s not. Straight from the horse’s mouth over at NASA: “With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.” Lest you worry that NASA doesn’t read the room, it’s also got a section about why this is happening: “We’re going back to the moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.”
(Sidenote: Did you know we capitalize “Moon?” I did not.)
Turns out much of the reason this Moon colony came as a surprise was because I completely tuned out of that era when rich guys were sending phallic-shaped rockets into space. That era was significant in that those guys were, in part, competing for the aforementioned commercial partnerships. And it worked: Both SpaceX (Elon Musk) and Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos) have been awarded billions of dollars in contracts related to the Artemis missions.
My newfound awareness of this Moon colony was made all the more relevant when Ronan Farrow dropped a long, but fascinating piece about Musk. Takeaway: The government is incredibly reliant on that guy, perhaps more than you realize, and we’ll soon add his involvement in this space race to the list. Arguably, a similar story could be written about Bezos, whose empire spans an equally wide range of industries. Whether you perceive their influences to be good or bad probably depends on how you feel about these guys more broadly. One thing they do have in common is a not-great track record with the environment — Tesla isn’t as clean as touted and Amazon’s climate pollution is getting worse.
As I got up-to-speed on the Moon colony news this week, I also caught up on a more-recent story, this time about rich folks who have been strongarm-buying thousands of acres of land in California, with the intention to build a new city that no one else seems to want. Combined, these stories give me a nagging discomfort that rich folks want to dip — be it on Earth or just the San Francisco area — and escape some of the problems they’ve helped exacerbate (ahem, the environment or income inequality). In thinking about this, I was reminded of what William Shatner wrote about his space visit:
“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”
2. Big Pimp(l)in’
What games are you playing on your phone these days? I’ll go first: I’ve become a near-daily Connections player. With less regularity, I’ll do a crossword or Wordle or some other word game. Generally, I stick to games that “wake my brain up,” as I say, and have a built-in one-a-day limit. Occasionally, I’ll go through phases of playing the more addictive games, like Candy Crush or Angry Birds or whatever.
I fell into a rabbit hole of an addictive game recently. I made the fateful decision to download a new-to-me puzzle game after getting served ads via a crossword game. I was avoiding some work, and sat through ad after ad after ad as my battery drained. Like a junkie, I’d think: “Ok, I’ll just get to this (arbitrary) level and then I’ll un-install it.” (I made it past level 200! Lol.) Finally, the decision was made for me when I started getting served an ad for Happy Hospital: Doctor ASMR, a game that seems to entail popping pimple-like growths on people’s feet and elsewhere. The whole thing made me uncomfortable about what algorithms I’ve triggered that the folks over at Google thought: “Oh yea, she’ll definitely want to download this game.” In fact, that ad was such a turnoff that I finally pressed un-install. I’m out, phew.
Lest you think I’m trolling about in obscure parts of the internet (a fair assumption), it turns out there’s quite an audience for a pimple popping game. According to Google, 10 million-plus people have downloaded this particular game — that’s more people than the population of New York City! — and it’s #7 in the “simulation” category in the Apple store. Who knew? Not I.
(Sidenote: Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when the developers were telling friends and family: “Uh, yea, I’m working on this new pimple-popping game…”)
There’s big business in pimple popping, in case you didn’t know. There’s even a TV show! That dermatologist, aptly monikered as Dr. Pimple Popper, is reportedly worth millions. And scores have stories have been written about why people enjoy this content so much (morbid curiosity and a sense of satisfaction are among the reasons). But to contextualize just how popular pimple popping is, consider this: The most popular pimple popping video has racked up 119 million views on YouTube — or approximately twice the number for this REO Speedwagon video I recently watched (a pretty funny video, btw) because I had the song stuck in my head.
Come to think of it, maybe going to colonize the Moon doesn’t look so bad.
3. The end of an eight-year love affair
Speaking of things people love, it’s the end of an era for me. This past week, it became official: I’m now a Boost Infinite customer. Blehhhh. The final death knell tolled for Republic Wireless. Haven’t heard of it? Too bad, because it was great — or, at one time, it was great. It’s been dying a long, slow death and now it’s gone for good.
Back in 2015, for reasons I no longer recall, I was fed up with Verizon and, on the recommendation of a friend, decided to make the leap to Republic Wireless. It felt daring at the time because it was still the early-ish days of MVNOs — or mobile virtual network operators. For as little as $5 a month, you could have unlimited calls + texts + a small allotment of data, with the caveat that Republic really wanted you to be connected to WiFi as much as possible. That didn’t prove problematic most months, even for me, someone who was out and about a lot. I was connected to my workplace WiFi and I had WiFi at home, which covered a lot of hours in a week. And those months when I ran over my data allotment, I could add more for $5. I was hooked.
That’s not to say there weren’t some hiccups. For an extended period of time, every outgoing text I sent was delivered at least twice to recipients. Early on, there were also issues with calls dropping if you walked out of your WiFi-connected home to the cellular tower-connected outside world. But there were some crazy perks, too: Thanks to that “WiFi-first” notion, my phone worked perfectly well outside of the US, provided I connected to WiFi. No SIM cards or international plan required. Best of all, Republic Wireless was cheap and there was a really robust community forum where you could get all your questions answered — often by other customers.
But the good times wouldn’t last. In 2021, DISH Network acquired Republic and thus began a slow and painful death. A few months back, DISH announced it was shutting down Republic altogether and moving those of us who remain to Boost Infinite.
Going down the internet rabbit hole about the death of Republic Wireless reminded me of of other great businesses that have vanished — or changed drastically — in the past decade or so. I suppose the real culprit may be capitalism, because it sure feels like good ideas get killed by somebody with more money. I can’t begrudge a founder for selling a business to a top bidder — why shouldn’t they get paid? — but, gah, a real bummer for customers sometimes. Here were some other examples:
Aereo. Ahh, this was a great service. For $8 per month, you leased an individual antenna and DVR which allowed you to watch live TV and record up to 20 hours of shows each month. But whaddya know, several broadcast networks filed suit and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled against Aereo and it was shut down in 2014. Now, similar options from the likes of YouTube or Hulu cost $70ish per month!
Job Spotter. This was a great idea from Indeed: By crowdsourcing hiring signs posted at businesses, job seekers could find more opportunities when searching for jobs online. While walking around, I’d snap a photo of a hiring sign, submit it to Indeed, and receive $0.50 in credit. With very little effort, I was making $100 to $200 each month. But word got out, Job Spotter became popular, Indeed reduced payments, and then discontinued the app in 2020.
Spacious. For those of us working remotely pre-pandemic, there weren’t a lot of affordable options to get out of the house. Enter: Spacious. This startup partnered with restaurants around NYC so these restaurants could moonlight as daytime co-working spaces and go back to the restaurant business on nights and weekends. It was a win-win: For $95 per month, people like me had access to a bunch of places to work and participating restaurants earned a nice monthly income. Alas, WeWork acquired Spacious in late-2019 only to shut it down four months later.
Gawker. There was a period in media in the early 2010s in which Gawker felt like required reading. It was snarky, it was smart, it felt relevant. Well, whadday know, a Hulk Hogan sex tape + a Peter Thiel-funded lawsuit against the blog = bankruptcy for Gawker. It still exits, but in a shell of its former self.
Groupon. When Groupon came on the scene in the late 2000s, it was a match made in heaven. In the early days, the deals were good and hard to come by — you had to act fast to get a Groupon. I once went skydiving thanks to a Groupon that was purchased, along with some friends, because only a few hours remained for the deal. But Groupon got too big for its britches, the deals became ever-present, and the whole space lost a lot of its luster.
Sigh. Why can’t we have nice things?!
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!