Welcome to my Friday cabinet of curiosities, a roundup of stuff I enjoyed this week! Today’s links feature old computers, new trends, an ancient game, and some sci fi silliness.

1) A rip of the 1996 VHS tape “Computing in the Fast Lane”, a short informational video about the uses of technology starring Gillian Anderson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsT155S6Y8A

2) An article about the discovery of a Mayan ball game scoreboard with hieroglyphics, from a site on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, dating to between AD800 and AD900: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/11/mayan-ball-game-scoreboard-chichen-itza-mexico

3) A look at a report from UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers studying changing values gleaned from television by children aged 8-12, from 1967 to 2017. (“Community” is a bit down, “fame” is way up): https://bigthink.com/high-culture/50-year-study-changes-in-values-children-pop-culture/

Would love to see an animated representation of the trends as they change over the years!

4) This giant pixel art piece Floor796, created by Russian artist 0x00. It’s “an ever-expanding animation scene showing the life of the 796th floor of the huge space station” featuring hundreds of pop culture Easter eggs: https://floor796.com/

(Be sure to check out the Russian-language interview linked in the “About” tab for the breakdown on how the animation renderer was created)