The man who drew the first geological map of an entire country spent twenty-eight years surveying it, sold his fossil collection to the British Museum to cover his debts, went to debtors' prison anyway, and walked home in 1819 to find bailiffs had taken his house - ScienceBlog.com

File this under "no good deed goes unpunished" ....

This is the story about the man who spent years of his life and drew the first geologic map Britain.  

His debts had amassed over his years away, and so he sold the fossils he collected to the British Museum.  Yet, that wasn't enough and he wound up going to debtors prison.

And then when he got out - with no money - he had to literally walk home, only to find that his house and all his possessions had been seized to cover his debts. 

He was left destitute. And his accomplishments in map making weren't recognized for many years.  

What a shame.  And I guess in a way "he didn't know the right people" who can literally get away with anything.

https://scienceblog.com/n-twenty-eight-years-of-surveying-then-ten-weeks-in-prison/

This cookie started its life as a plastic bottle - American Chemical Society

Corn stalks. Plastic bottles. Oxygen. High temperatures. Just add water and voila, you have a protein rich cookie that can help with the world’s hunger problem. 

Now I’m a little dubious about what they did and whether it’s viable, but they do attack two of the more pressing issues. So maybe they have something great here. 

https://www.acs.org/adobe/dynamicmedia/deliver/dm-aid--3c7e31c5-9663-42f9-8856-cd23b585543f/082426-plastic-cookies.jpg.webp?width=700&quality=90

https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2026/august/this-cookie-started-its-life-as-a-plastic-bottle.html

Disney patent hints at trick behind new Encanto ride

Always the innovators, Disney has come up with a new kind of ride technology which they are looking to patent. 

It’s a method to trick a rider into thinking they are going up or down, without any physical lifts or drops - or moving parts. 

The idea is that they use a kind of forced perspective coupled with narrowing walls that give the illusion of lifts and drops. 

The plan is to use this technology in the under-construction encanto ride. It will be family friendly but exciting. 

I look forward to seeing this when it’s complete. 

https://boingboing.net/2026/08/17/disney-patent-for-a-fake-elevation-ride-trick-matches-new-en.html

Bees in Space: Our Guide to NASA's Orbital Pollinator Experiments

Back in 1982, we sent 14 bees on a space mission. Astronauts observed the bees and noticed that they had trouble flying and “finding their way” likely due to the lack of gravity and directional indicators like north. But we learned something, even though that group of bees died when they returned to earth. 

Two years later, a college student designed another experiment with a group of 3,300 honeybees that went up on a shuttle mission. They, too, struggled for a bit, but they managed to orient themselves and got to the task of building a honeycomb - successfully. The overall takeaway was that they had a similar sort of like cycle to what bees on earth had. The queen even laid eggs, though they didn’t hatch. But the bees did make it back to earth and were returned to the farm from which they came. 

Sadly, not much more was done with this information - but we know that bees can survive away from other and could be effective pollinators and can produce honey. 

Those are things that are useful to us in the future 

https://www.vegasbees.com/post/history-of-bees-in-space

https://texasarchive.org/2024AC06462

Bob Chapek Breaks His Silence with Tell-All Memoir About His Ouster as Disney CEO - Disney Tourist Blog

Oh the drama! I’m sure some shade will be thrown by Chapek!

For the uninitiated, Chapek had worked his way through the ranks at Disney. CEO Bob Iger, after years of hemming and hawing about succession planning that saw some tremendous candidates to be Disneys next CEO leave the company, decided Chapek was going to be the next guy. 

Arguably Chapek was not up to the job. To be fair, he took the reins at the height of the pandemic. But he did alienate himself to very many with his style and some comments he made. 

So the board removed Chapek after just a few months, and put Iger back in the job. 

While it certainly bruised his ego, Chapek got paid well for his run as CEO. And surely, he’ll continue to use that “stigma” to his advantage through his career. 

 

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/bob-chapek-breaks-his-silence-with-tell-all-memoir-about-his-ouster-as-disney-ceo/

New Underline section opens from Dadeland to South Miami | Miami Herald

Back in the 1970s, as urban sprawl was just beginning in Miami, the transit authority thought building a light rail would be a solution to getting people around through the city. They had grand plans and ambitions, but they only wound up building about 11 miles of elevated track when they opened it 40 years ago. Metrorail was a bit of a mess in the early days and took on the nickname of “metrofail” for a while. 

It’s since been expanded since, but the one thing you can say is that it was a nothing. Just concrete jutting from the ground, with nothing beneath it. Just broken bottles, overgrown weeds, concrete parking lots, and the homeless. But now, they’re making an effort to make it something. They call it the underline - which IMHO is pretty amusing. 

By the way, the right of way they used was originally a train track owned by the FEC … which as you may recall was what was originally Henry Flagler’s rail to Key West. It remained a working rail line until sometime in the 1970s. And as my dad shared with me, it was used by the military during the Cuban missile crisis in the 60s to move weapons down to the keys efficiently.  Miami acquired it when it fell into disuse and thus became metro rail.  

The Miami Herald reported on progress, but it’s behind a paywall. You can read it here:

https://archive.is/2026.08.17-161631/https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article316846179.html

Disney and the NFL have a collab? Huh?

For some reason - probably because ESPN is Disney owned and there’s some money changing hands between ESPN and the NFL as a partnership of sorts - Disney announced that there’s a “collab” where Disney characters would be used with team logos. And uhhhh…

This week, the full lineup was revealed, and it is fascinating, confusing, and everything in between.

Agreed. It’s just weird. And stupid. And it’s something no one asked for. But don’t let that stop you from merchandising! 

For the dolphins they selected king triton. And while I think flounder from the same movie would have been better, triton works too. He’s the ruler of the seas, but he’s not paying attention and his daughter just does whatever, and focuses on shiny objects.  In the end, he gives in and just lets her be. Which is kind of a metaphor for the dolphins owner. 

https://gizmodo.com/were-both-confused-and-fascinated-by-this-disney-and-nfl-team-up-2000802516

And you can see them all here 

https://www.disneystore.com/collections/disney-champion-nfl-collection/