Lockdown lasts, but since yesterday night we’ve been granted an extra hour of daylight to enjoy and luckily spring added a gorgeous sunshine to it today. Athenians are out to walk and have their obligatory coffees, showing that some customs are just too ingrained to fade even at the face of hindrances and life goes on, simply and enjoyably in its small moments. And with this little reflection, let’s proceed without further ado to opening this week’s Crate.

1. In case you haven’t yet heard about Afrofuturism – the branch of science fiction that has given us a number of gems including, but not limited to the movie “Black Panther”, the funkadelic tunes of George Clinton and the Parliament and the novels of Octavia Butler, it about time you did. The term itself dates from 1993, but the works covered by it go back considerably longer. And as a word of note – Afrofuturism is also strongly present in contemporary African design.

2. We might consider “The Bionic Man” purely an old fantasy series, but real life is approaching the concept fast. In 2020 Robert “Buz” Chmielewski became the first person to have electrodes implanted into his brain that will allow him to control a pair of prosthetic arms with his mind only.

3. The meaning of life is, as we all know, 42. However, just in case you need some help in reaching that conclusion, Mark Manson has listed 7 questions that will help you closer to the answer. (Yes, the image is from Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”)

4. Having a bad day? Surely a capybara in a pool with an orange on its head can fix that.

5. Sailors were some of the people who were sporting tattoos way before they became mainstream trendy. Back then those tattoos also had particular meanings. (Click on the link to see the whole chart)

6. And a little comic by Hannah Hillam describing a typical post-pandemic condition to finish off for today.

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