Bitcoin? Real estate tokenization? Nope. This real estate token predates the current craze for blockchain assets by a hundred years. This coin was struck by the promoters of the Sylvia Park Development Company in 1924, and it offered the bearer a piece of Topanga Paradise—with a few strings attached. We have the story. Cover concept and design by Urs Baur.
That is no country for old men.
The young in one another’s arms,
Birds in the trees—
Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls,
The mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl,
Commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
—William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”
This is a country that does not value age, or respect it, or have compassion for it when it robs our elders of their strength. It was inevitable that President Joe Biden would bend to the will of his advisors and supporters and bow out of the presidential race, and probably also necessary, in light of what appears to be rapidly declining health and mental acuity, but it is a somber moment in American history, and it carries with it the ominous feel of a major turning point, for good or ill.
Instead of trying to read a future that could go in any number of directions, we would like to take a moment to look back, and thank the man who has worked so hard to repair the damage of the previous administration, restoring environmental protections, civil rights, diplomacy, and civility, despite having almost no support from a contrary and uncooperative congress. It takes courage and humility to know—in the words of another poet—when to fold, and when to walk away.
It is easy to feel helpless and overwhelmed by the news cycle, but there is something we can all do to influence the outcome, and that is to vote in November.
A global technology outage last week created chaos and provided a stark reminder of how deeply intertwined with technology every aspect of our lives have become. The outage was caused by a faulty software update from Crowdstrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity company. It directly impacted computers running Microsoft Windows, but the outage caused a cascade that ultimately impacted almost everyone: cloud storage, hospital records, government services, airport computers, all went down, delaying everything from thousands of flights to critical medical procedures. The post-crisis mop-up was still underway when TNT went to press—just another hazard of life in interesting times.
Humans aren’t the only ones experiencing stress. The Agoura Animal Shelter has been swamped this month with cats and dogs. The entire Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control system is overwhelmed this summer with animals that desperately need a second chance. In addition to cats and dogs, there may also be rabbits, guinea pigs, real pigs, goats, horses, chickens. and turtles up for adoption. Not only do these animals urgently need homes, but the shelters need donations of food, clean towels, toys, and beds to help make them comfortable. Visit https://animalcare.lacounty.gov to learn more. Donations can be left in front of the Agoura Hills Shelter: 29525 Agoura Rd, Agoura Hills, CA 91301
It is summer meteor season. On July 14, earth began to move through the debris field that trails the comet Swift-Tuttle, which completes its orbit around the sun every 133 years. Swift Tutle is the source of the Perseid meteor shower.
Particles of dust and ice from the comet become superheated as they graze the Earth’s atmosphere, blazing into “shooting stars” for a brief moment before burning up. The Perseids peak around August 13, but shooting stars from this event are possible any time from mid July to early September.
There are two smaller meteor showers that overlap with the Perseids: the Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids, both of which will peak in the early hours of July 30. Neither of these meteor showers generate many visible meteors—the best place to view the Delta Aquariids is the Southern Hemisphere—but taken together with the Perseids, they increase the odds of catching a shooting star this summer. If you do, dear reader, don’t forget to make a wish.
Stay safe, be well. Don’t forget to look for shooting stars.
