Happy Friyay Sebastian,

Hope you've had a wonderful week!

With the World Cup knockouts, Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix all on this weekend, it is a gloriously sporty one. Inside: the science of the perfect penalty, an AI that reads brain waves, and Ghana's joyful fantasy coffins.

And a happy Fourth of July to our American readers. As an English company we are being terribly gracious about the whole thing, so do enjoy the fireworks.

As always, big love,

Chris and the 42courses team x

P.S. Currently we're celebrating 10 years of 42courses, so if you want to get a membership or course, use the code 4224 at checkout for a special offer.

The Science Of The Perfect Penalty · Penalties are not a lottery, whatever the losing side says. The sport psychology of the spot kick, and why goalkeepers would save more by simply standing still. Timely, with the World Cup down to the knockouts.

Cannes Lions 2026: All The Grand Prix Winners · The ad industry's biggest week just wrapped, and Creative Review has gathered every Grand Prix winner in one place. From a KitKat heist to Mother's quietly funny films for Claude. Catnip if you love great advertising.

An AI That Turns Brain Waves Into Words · Meta has trained an AI to read the brain of someone typing, through a non-invasive scanner, and rebuild their sentences. Early days, but it could one day hand a voice back to those who have lost theirs.

Ghana's Fantasy Coffins · In Accra, master carpenters send people off in coffins shaped like whatever they loved: a fish for a fisherman, a giant Coke bottle, a lobster. A joyful craft that turns a funeral into a celebration of a life.

A 2,000-Year-Old Scroll, Finally Read · Too fragile to open, this Vesuvius-charred Herculaneum scroll was unrolled virtually by X-rays and machine learning, and read end to end. Inside: a lost treatise on Stoic ethics. History giving up its secrets, one pixel at a time.

The Best Of Dave Trott · One from our own blog. The sharpest thinking from the legendary adman, on creativity, simplicity and out-thinking rather than out-spending the competition. Quotable, contrary and good fun.

The Illusion Of Clarity · That comfortable feeling of understanding something is often a trap. Anne-Laure Le Cunff on how to test whether you truly grasp an idea, or have just grown used to the words. Quietly brilliant.

1608 · Samuel de Champlain steps ashore on the St Lawrence and founds the little trading post that grows into Quebec City 🍁

1767 · A fifteen-year-old midshipman named Robert Pitcairn is the first to spot a tiny speck of a Pacific island, and it has carried his name ever since 🏝️

1769 · Richard Arkwright patents his water frame, the roller-spinning machine that mechanised cotton and helped spin the Industrial Revolution into life 🧵

1884 · Charles Dow publishes his very first stock average in a two-page financial bulletin, the humble seed of both the Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal 📈

1886 · Karl Benz takes his Patent-Motorwagen, widely reckoned the first true automobile, for its first public spin through the streets of Mannheim 🚗

1928 · John Logie Baird demonstrates the world's first colour television transmission in his London workshop, famously testing it on a basket of strawberries 📺

1938 · The streamlined locomotive Mallard thunders down Stoke Bank at 126 mph and sets a world speed record for steam that has never been beaten 🚂

1985 · Back to the Future roars into cinemas, sending Marty McFly and a souped-up DeLorean thirty years into the past 🎬