If you've ever seen a Rubik's cube, you've probably had the cliché thought, "Only geniuses can solve that." It's actually pretty simple. By memorizing only one necessary set of turns for each of a handful of steps, it's solved. It takes a while to get a feel for it, but it can be solved on the first try with instructions, which you will almost certainly need to ever solve it. Be sure to check out the sites of interest links below for all kinds of ways to solve and tricks you can do.
Invented in 1974, the Rubik's cube puzzle has always been considered a "toy," but by comparison, it is a great exercise for the brain, ameliorating muscle memory, hand-eye coordination, and exploratory problem solving. It has a fan base of competitive enthusiasts which like to collect all of the different types, and see how fast they can solve them. This subtle, broader path of IQ enhancement is explored by fans because they find themselves with a metaphysical desire to understand mechanical patterns in a heightened sense of nature.
Since its inception, hundreds of variations of twisty puzzles have been invented, with newer features and mechanisms as time goes on, and even with images as the faces which make them more challenging. Most commonly, they are centered around the platonic solids (Wolfram Alpha) ⇗ due to their perfect symmetry, but different experimental models are always in the works. There are even virtual twisty puzzles in higher dimensions as featured in 4D Lyceum. When going down the rabbit hole, one either becomes lost... or addicted. For those willing to take the leap, the world of twisty puzzles offers endless fascination and discovery.
Many of us want to see interstellar travel. Some of us want to explore the wonders of the universe. Some of us just want off the planet.
The good news is that it is becoming closer to a reality. Unlike the famous Alcubierre drive, which speculated the existence of some factors that are still unknown, a new model is in the works on paper. It is an engineering concept consistent with known physics, and is already being refined in its infancy to answer challenges regarding its viability.
The bad news is that it is not a means of faster-than-light (FTL) travel. But this is okay. because if we achieve it, it is an efficient means of travel that will save us a lot of time in getting places. We won't have to rely on fuel conservation techniques and sling shot maneuvers using gravity. We will be able to just travel a straight and narrow path. This will at least better prepare us for our exploration and civilization within the solar system, and can serve as a first step towards interstellar travel.
Back in the day, people were far less afraid to make their voices heard, because they had far less to lose and were pushed to more severe circumstances. The battle of Seattle was a unique riot, because most of the riots that have taken place in the U.S. prior to it were over racial injustice (The Long Hot Summer at Britannica) ⇗, the most notable one from my generation being a result of the police brutality of Rodney King (Britannica) ⇗ going unanswered.
The Seattle riots in 1999 weren't racially motivated, but instead motivated by the World Trade Organization meeting scheduled to take place there, and peoples' concerns over tightening international laws in favor of capitalism. For about a day, there was a peaceful demonstration with overwhelming numbers, but that soon turned into rioting after both police exacerbated the situation with force, and anarchists showed up and started breaking everything. What resulted was 40,000 people trying to burn the city down.
In knowing since their inceptions that services like Ancestry are not a reliable sources for tracing family lineage, imagine the frustration of some when others still use them and foolishly say they found out they are X, Y, and Z. Even despite several investigative news reports coming to the surface, Ancestry and services like it continue to grow in popularity and rewrite peoples' history. To address this, they always fall back on their "limited scientific capabilities," but it should be noted that most of them only analyze a fraction of each DNA sample and don't share their data with anyone, which makes it by definition unscientific.
