This week we’ve got a fun show for the kids that may inspire some adventuring; a history lesson from the sky and an update to a beloved space sim that will keep you entertained all weekend long.
Leave your comfort zone with ‘Ivy + Bean’
If you’ve got kids, you’ll surely know Annie Barrows’ “Ivy + Bean” book series about two girls who overcome their differences and become best friends as they discover the adventurous parts of their neighborhood. (And if you have kids and don’t know the series, change that stat!) Netflix’s adaptation of the book series is pretty adorable and shows kids and grown-ups alike how much fun you can have once you leave your comfort zone.
‘Royal Britain: An Aerial History of the Monarchy’
The death of Queen Elizabeth II marks the end of an era, and depending on whether they grew up in the U.K., in one of its former colonies or somewhere else altogether, people understandably have very different feelings about this moment. I firmly fall into the third bracket and fully expect to learn more about the queen than I ever have while I’m inundated by the wall-to-wall coverage over the next couple of days. If you, like me, could use a bit of a refresher on the British monarchy, I recommend this documentary, which delivers a very different perspective: Consisting entirely of aerial shots, the film takes a look at the many castles that had once been part of the British empire and explains their role in the country’s history.
The story behind Google’s Fuchsia OS
Chris McKillop was one of the main people behind Fuchsia, Google’s new operating system for smart displays and other consumer electronics devices. 9to5Google’s interview with him is pretty geeky but also pretty fascinating, as it charts the path from the much-maligned Nexus Q (the cannonball-shaped home audio device that Google ended up killing before its official launch) to modern smart displays and beyond. McKillop talks about what it takes to build an operating system, why that is very different from actually shipping it to millions of consumers and why other companies may fork Fuchsia for their own devices in the future (something that Meta was planning to do for its AR efforts before deciding to stick with Android).
Interkosmos is a space sim worth checking out
When it first launched in 2017 for PC VR, Interkosmos was hailed as an equally clever and terrifying simulator of 1970s space travel. In that same spirit, Interkosmos 2000 lets you try your luck as an astronaut in a Y2K-era spaceship. Interkosmos 2000 is a bit like Job Simulator, but instead of flipping burgers, you’re charged with saving humanity from within a tiny spaceship that runs on floppy disks. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently a lot, judging from the fact that the training session already asks you to hit random instruments with a wrench in order to “fix” them.
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