Heya,
This week marked the first time I have been able to walk the dog since I (we?) broke my ankle in February. He pulled as hard as he always did, so I guess he is confident I am back to full fitness. In other historically important news:
🧑🚀 SpaceX will be the first private space operator to launch astronauts into space.
🎼 Is there an ethical way to stream music?
🏗️ Instructions for building the best blanket fort.
Enjoy,
Chris.
📰 From the Newsroom
If the weather holds, then SpaceX will make history today. If it doesn't, they'll make history on Saturday instead. ☀️
Firsts:
- First time in nearly nine years that astronauts took off from American soil.
- First time that a commercially built rocket and spacecraft will be used to get astronauts into low-Earth orbit.
- First time SpaceX will send humans into space.
Not firsts: The mission will last between 30 and 119 days, but this isn't time these astronauts have tripped the atmosphere fantastic. They have over 1300 hours in space between them. Bob Behnken has logged 708 hours with 37 of them spent spacewalking. His companion, Doug Hurley, has 683 space hours to his credit.
Dollars and Ruples: NASA hoped to use private operators for cargo and astronaut delivery by 2017. Over the past nine years, NASA has paid $4 billion to Russia for its delivery service. SpaceX will make $55 million per astronaut every time they deliver one to the space station. With Virgin Orbit still in the early stages it's safe to say that a successful launch today will ring like a cash register in the SpaceX accounting department.
Where to watch: The launch is set for 4:33 p.m. US Eastern Time with live coverage starting from 12:15 p.m. Live updates will be provided until the astronauts dock with the space station at 11:30 a.m. EST on Thursday.
NASA will live stream the launch on YouTube.
SpaceX will livestream it on their site.
technologyreview.com
Can you stream music ethically? 👨🎤
Show musicians the money: Payments in the music industry have been lopsided since the first caveman banged two rocks together with rhythm. Flash forward to the streaming era and you'll be surprised at how low the payment-per-stream is. The payment is calculated according to a number of different metrics from listener location to listener account status but the average payments according to platform start at 0.00151 on Pandora and reaches 0.01196 on Amazon Music Unlimited.
Picking on Spotify: because they are the largest single-service streaming option, but definitely not an outlier when it comes to their payments. The average per stream payment hovers around 0.00318 per stream on revenues of $8.8 billion. However, they have started to offer more options for struggling artists. However, Spotify might have helped save the music business, but their algorithms are hurting music discovery.
Switch the model: Bandcamp waive their fees on every Friday until July and other artist-owned platforms, like Ampled are starting to emerge. A user-centric option has been floated whereby artist would receive a share of the listener's subscription fee based on how many times they are streamed by a user.
vice.com
⛓️ Ten Must See Links of the Month
1. I don't think I have shared this before, but it's worthy of double-sharing anyway. Business Town is a comic that attempts to "explain our highly intangible, deeply disruptive, data-driven, venture-backed, gluten-free economic meritocracy to the uninitiated" using cute animals.
2. The Pudding has done it again. This guide to masked wrestlers is somehow even more fun than the music quiz.
3. IKEA Russia have instructions for building great forts.
4. Random mini-planets orbit around a planet in this playful pen. Increase and decrease the pull for fun.
5. Cheating with two links here. Love the transforms, particularly for the Instagram section, on this fashion website. Love the gooey effects on this one.
6. On that subject, why not devote some time to JS animation this year. Here are the best libraries to use.
7. I've decided to be a blog evangelist this year, since my blog rockstar moves are weak. The best, cheap hosting for WordPress.
8. Like your doughnuts warm? Check out this recently discovered fiery doughtnut-shaped galaxy.
9. This article is excellent for anyone working on a large project. How large? Spacious. The team analysed 65 million data points about estate agents to identify trends and compare estate agents in the UK. If you want to run projects, then I recommend checking it out.
10. Care Cards is a website with handy tips for bringing more well into your being.
Bizarro Devs
Outro
That's it for the week.
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Have a great week,
Chris.
Bizarro Devs