Hot lists and sleeper trains, but too guilty to use time off.
Billions in revenue, zero in profit.
From "in a ship" to "in the water", in 10min.
This month we're exploring the extremes of travel & business.
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As always, your chance to win $50 is down below π
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Congrats to Zac, our latest survey winner!
"My favorite place is Indonesia - each island offers something unique. It feels like another world. Volcanoes like Rinjani and Bromo, challenging hikes, hidden waterfalls, and the spicy local food make it unforgettable. Even being near Krakatoa, hearing its distant rumblings at sea, gives me an indescribable thrill. That's one of the volcanoes behind me." |
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- A "hot list" ranging from TΓΌrkiye's Black Sea coast to a Theodore Roosevelt library in North Dakota (count me sliiiightly skeptical on the latter).
- New sleeper trains across Europe mean you can board in Paris and wake up in the Alps, or fall asleep in Brussels and open your eyes in Venice.
- Half of US workers don't use their vacation days, with 1 in 5 feeling "guilty" about time off they've (literally) earned.
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Over half a trillion dollars invested. $44 billion in revenue. Zero profitable companies.
According to Ed Zitron, such is the brave new world of AI: companies struggle to control compute costs, models hallucinate constantly, and the business model is basically shuffling money back and forth between vendors and NVIDIA.
Whatever your overall opinion on AI β and we think there's plenty of room for nuance β it seems inarguable that it's turning into the biggest tech bubble since the dot-com crash. |
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In 2003, Barbra Streisand sued over one photo in a 12,000-image coastal erosion project. Before the lawsuit, six views. After? Everyone saw it.
Mike Masnick (long-time Minaal owner!) coined the phrase "Streisand Effect" in 2005. Twenty years on, it remains a delightful reminder that trying to hide things online usually makes them go viral.
Also: the photographer won, Streisand paid his costs, and the photo is still up. |
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New Year's Eve 2019: fishing vessel Scandies Rose left Kodiak with seven crew. Twenty-four hours later it capsized near Sutwik Island. Two survivors, five bodies never recovered.
The problem wasn't human error; it was bad stability instructions and extreme localized weather. Ice accumulated asymmetrically up to 15 inches thick. In just ten minutes, one of the survivors went from sleeping to fighting for his life.
Deep sea fishing has a fatality rate 40x the average job. Yet five years on, most of the safety recommendations resulting from this sinking still haven't been implemented. |
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Win $50 store credit by answering 2 simple questions. No using AI to answer! Our AI is watching your AI π
Enter here π
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As always: let us know what you liked, what you'd like to see more of, your favourite library in North Dakota, that sorta thing.
J, D, & the Minaal team
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Made with β€οΈ all over the π by the Minaal crew.
2025 MINAAL / PRIVACY
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