Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Popsicles made from polluted water, 200-year-old wine, a Super Nintendo World theme park and more

1. Early Reviews of Apple’s Just-Announced HomePod At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, the tech giant confirmed a long-rumored and highly anticipated product: HomePod, the speaker that promises to marry high-quality audio with an intelligent assistant Siri. The in-house speaker has seven tweeters (each with its own amp), six mics, a high-excursion woofer and measures seven inches in height. Apple gave just a handful of publications …

California Modernism Pioneer William Krisel Dies

During his life, architect William Krisel contributed 1,200 affordable, modernist middle-class homes to California between 1957 to 1963, with the builder-developers George and Robert Alexander. He explained to NPR back in the ’50s that his mission was to build a system where buyers could purchase “a 100 x 100 lot, all fenced in, landscaped, modern design, air condition, swimming pool—all for $29,900.” And that’s exactly …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Spelling bees as a sport, living on Mars, inventions for future humans, Muppets and more

1. United Arab Emirates Aims to Colonize Mars by 2117 Potentially named City of Wisdom, a fully functioning outpost for 600,000 people on Mars is a new goal for the United Arab Emirates. And the target year happens to be 2117. Appropriately named “Mars 2117,” the project aims to be a multinational effort according to program director Saeed Gergawi. For such an effort to work, …