Hello there, curious mind,

Congratulations, you made it to Friday! 🎉

While we can't send you a trophy, we can offer you a delightful serving of mind-expanding reads to start your weekend with a bang.

We've got some AI news, a reason to play video games, a post-apocalypse book club, and more! So please kick back with a cuppa, and enjoy.

Big love,

Chris & the 42courses team

• Artists win a battle against AI for copyright: Nobody saw that coming! Only joking - this could mean an interesting future for AI art, and the reference images it is allowed to be trained on.
   
• What books do we need to restart civilization from scratch? Well, that's one of the questions The Long Now asks, because they're an organisation dedicated to some seriously long term thinking.
   
• The power of play: How playing video games improves problem-solving skills in students, according to research that might just change how you spend your weekend.
   
• Who would pay that?! This is a delightful look into the psychology of pricing, and answer the question of how luxury brands get people to cough up eye-wateringly large sums of money.
   
• Don't Push This Button: Unless you want to be taken to a randomly selected useless website. (But if you do, please let us know where you went!)

• 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, which is very exciting, but ultimately not great for Pompeii. 🌋
   
• 1305 - William Wallace, the Scottish patriot, is executed for high treason. 🏴
   
• 1617 - The first one-way streets open in London. 🚦
   
• 1789 - During the French Revolution, the National Assembly proclaims freedom of religious opinions. 🕊️
   
• 1924 - Mars makes its closest approach to Earth since the 10th century. 🔭
   
• 1966 - The Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from the Moon's orbit. 🌍
   
• 1974 - John Lennon reports seeing a UFO in New York City. 👽
   
• 2005 - Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas, later becoming one of the most devastating hurricanes in US history. 🌪️
   
• 2007 - The hashtag is invented and first used in a tweet by US product designer Chris Messina. #️⃣