The Upside Roundup - 5 Things I Like This Week, August 7
A Historic Splashdown, DNA Hacking, and Poker’s Life Applications
Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States, which effectively ended World War II. Approximately 150,000 people were killed in the blast, or almost as many Americans that have died from the coronavirus. This was a retaliatory measure for what took place during Pearl Harbor four years earlier. The unveiling of a nuclear weapon brought a truly frightening possibility of what was possible in warfare to light. The project to build the first atomic bomb started six years earlier with a letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin Roosevelt describing the powerful potential of the weapon. That revelation led to the $2 billion Manhattan Project and the ultimate downfall for the Japanese. Survivors from the attack still feel the trauma from that day, but as time continues to pass, the legacy of the devastating event slowly start to fade.
1. The Successful NASA Splashdown
· For the first time ever, a US spacecraft carrying astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) made a successful return using a splashdown. The landing took place in the Gulf Coast off of Florida, and went along smoothly despite concerns of tropical storm Isaias. Two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, took a 19-hour ride to the ISS back in May as part of a mission called Demo-2 that is designed to end the United States reliance on Russia for transporting astronauts to the ISS. The journey was 27.1 million miles and is a key milestone in the SpaceX plans of transporting astronauts to and from the ISS on a regular basis. The research the astronauts did on the Space Station served as important discovery that could lead to human exploration of the Moon and Mars. The last time a splashdown had ever occurred was in 1975 as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Highlights from the landing can be seen here.
· Two weeks ago, there was understandable concern over the return of Major League Baseball and their questionable decision to spurn having their league start in a bubble and elect to encourage traveling instead. The NBA and NHL returned last week, and put in strict measures to ensure that their self-imposed bubbles would keep COVID-19 out. The numbers don’t lie, and it’s clear that restricting athletes to a bubble has had a profound impact on keeping the players healthy. Both the NBA and the NHL have been excellent with a perfect record while the MLB has had at least six teams force postponement of their games due to the virus. All of this is extremely useful information for the NFL, which has been surprisingly been quiet about how it plans to return despite being the highest risk sport attempting to conduct a season.
· MacKenzie Scott is the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has a net worth of close to $60 billion, and is the fourth richest woman in the word. Now that she has controlling power of her wealth from the divorce, she has pledged a substantial portion of that to charitable causes, 116 organizations to be exact. She has already named the recipients of almost $2 billion in donations as a result of a “dividend of privilege I’d been overlooking.” A large portion of the pledge -- $587 million -- is going to victims of racial inequality. She is also targeting climate change, economic inequality, and LGBTQ groups. The money that has been allocated is only the start of her charitable donations; she said she intends to “keep going until the safe is empty.” She is choosing to donate her money in the same vein as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey where the recipients have autonomous control over how the money is spent.
4. The Possibilities of CRISPR
· The ability to alter DNA has been a challenging and time-consuming curiosity that scientists have worked hard to figure out. Thanks to the development of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), a system is in place for a fast, easy, and cheap way for genetic material to be altered. This could have powerful effects in fighting cancer and HIV. DNA hacking is primed to become a billion-dollar industry, with industries like agriculture, energy, and cannabis desperately trying to get involved. The possibilities are endless with the potential for superhumans to be genetically engineered to perfection. The ethical debate over what’s acceptable to do a person’s genetic material makes for interesting conversation. But, like most things, the results haven’t backed up the hype yet.
5. How Poker Can Teach You To Win At Life
· Maria Konnikova quit her job as a writer for the New Yorker to play professional poker even though she had never played before and didn’t even know the rules. She solicited Erik Seidel, one of the game’s greatest players, to teach her the game and act as a mentor. Konnikova’s experience learning the game of the poker is the subject of her New York Times bestselling book The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win. The book goes into detail on what motivated her to learn poker and the insights she gained from learning from a master. This includes focusing on the process instead of the result, and the difference between a victor and victim mentality. A process focused person will perform better and continually puts themselves in position to win, but is smart enough to accept failure or defeat as a part of the human experience. When you’re a victim, things are happening to you and you have no control over your own destiny.