TL; DR with Tyler | Pigs play Fortnite

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TL; DR with Tyler

5 min readFeb 22, 2021

Good morning and happy Monday🌞. I hope you had a wonderful weekend — if not, here’s a video to help you get battle-ready for the week ahead.

MONDAY, FEB 22, 2021

Welcome to the Monday edition of TL; DR. Friday was our one week Birthday, and we’ve already hit our first growing pain — I missed Friday’s publication. As we get back into routine, let me know what you’ve loved, what you’ve hated, and where you think we can improve. Hit me up.

National ___ Day: National Margarita Day 🍹. I wish this one was on a Tuesday, but I don’t make the rules — I just follow them. Whether you have an amazing Monday, or end up needing a double shot of Jose, observe today by shakin’ up one of your favorite salt-rimmed beverages this evening. Make sure the limes are fresh and drink responsibly!

Here are your TL;DR articles of the day.

TRAVEL

United Airlines flight has slight malfunction

POV: You’ve been looking forward to escaping the cold weather in Denver for months now, and you’re finally on your way to visit the capital of the Hawaiian islands- beautiful, sunny, Honolulu. You board your plane (window seat, your favorite) and as you begin to reach peak ascent, you look out your window expecting to see the snow-capped Rockies but instead — you see this.

That was probably the scenario for some unlucky traveler on United Flight 328 this weekend. After some passengers heard a loud “boom”, it became apparent that the plane had suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff, sending debris raining down on soccer fields, homes and yards in a Denver suburb. Luckily the plane was able to return to the Denver airport it had departed from and there were no injuries, but it just makes you think — do I really want to go on vacation that bad? My answer? Yeah, probably.

BRAIN FOOD

The Ultimate Guide to Making Ideas Happen

“Nobody gives a sh*t what you’re going to start. All that counts is what you finish”

I’m sure we’ve all thought of that “great app idea”, or about the podcast that would be PERFECT for you and your friends to start. But, there’s something about getting over the hump of actually doing that most people struggle with.

Anybody can get good at making ideas happen — you just need the right framework. This guide will help you avoid being yet another casualty of inspiration, and teach you how to become the type of person who is masterful at making ideas happen.

It’s a bit lengthy, but if that podcast idea has been burning inside your soul for the last year, I encourage you to start here.

EYE CANDY

A small scratch to your travel itch

I came across this Instagram page the other day, and did the whole scroll-for-20-minutes-and-forget-where-you-are thing. He’s an Arizona based photographer with a knack for capturing the most immaculate landscapes. If you’re still stuck in the house and have a foot of snow greeting you at the door, take a look at this guy’s work and itch that travel bug we all have.

SPACE

Videos roll in from NASA’s historic Mars landing

Perseverance, NASA’s most ambitious interplanetary rover yet, was slowly lowered to the surface of an ancient lakebed on Mars on Thursday, Feb. 18. There are SO many things that need to go right to accomplish this feat, and the margin for error is slim to none.

The rover itself is outfitted with a suite of cameras and a microphone to catch all the fine details. “This is a new sensory way to engage with the red planet,” said Alice Gorman, a space archaeologist at Flinders University in Australia. “We can close our eyes, imagine ourselves standing on the surface of Mars and listen to the sounds of Martian nature.” 👽

After seeing the pictures that have already sent back, I really can’t wait for more to continue rolling in. I’m still not sold on being on the Mars vacation pilot program, but I’m willing to be convinced.

GAMING

Pigs can play video games with their snouts, scientists find

If you were ever curious about who you’re playing against in a Call of Duty Warzone lobby, look no further.

Researchers at Penn State conducted a study to see if four pigs — Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony and Ivory — could be trained to use an arcade-style joystick to steer an on-screen cursor into walls. Not exactly Fortnite-level difficulties here, but it was interesting to learn that some pigs are able to intentionally manipulate a video game-like scenario to get a reward (in this case, food).

It’s important to recognize that their interaction with the system were deliberate and focused, rather than random. This implies that the pigs acquired the association between the joystick and cursor movement. If you think this sounds like the prequal to a Planet of the Pigs movie trilogy, I agree.

Daily hot take. Survivor is a phenomenal show. Unless you hate reality TV, I’m not sure if it’s that much of a hot take — but I just binged the last 2 seasons of Survivor on Netflix, and let me tell you… it was well worth it. Give it a shot.