The Portal

Tired of the pandemic and want to meet new people? A giant circle near the Vilnius, Latvia train station lets people wave to people in Lublin, Poland in real time, connecting with a mix of cameras, the internet, and circular screens. While you can’t step through this portal and magically travel from Vilnius to Lublin, the connection to total strangers in another country is magical. It’s a visual bridge to bring different people and communities together to rethink the idea of what connects us. It’s the result of a five-year project created by VILNIUS TECH and funded by the Benediktas Gylys Foundation. Best part? They plan to create more portals to connect cities.

https://www.govilnius.lt/media-news/vilnius-invites-residents-to-connect-through-a-portal
https://portalcities.org/

Mars Horizon Game

How would you like to create your very own space agency like NASA? The Mars Horizon game lets you build rockets and test them first with non-crewed missions then crewed missions. You start from the very beginning of your space race and work through all the detailed steps needed to launch a successful mission to Mars.

https://www.aurochdigital.com/marshorizonvideogame
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/mars-horizon-switch/

River Runner

Created by Sam Learner, a data analyst, River Runner is an online 3D map that lets you drop a single drop of water anywhere in the United States to watch where it goes. The map shows how interconnected water is in the US. It’s a great way to see how water, plastic, and pollution interact. Data is from the United States Geological Survey.

https://river-runner.samlearner.com/

Rebuilding the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral

A team of archaeologists and remote-controlled robots have put together a video to demonstrate how the 674 year old cathedral will be restored after a devastating fire in April 2019. The first step was to secure the building because the fire damaged the interior and melted scaffolding from a previous restoration in progress. The restoration is intended to last hundreds of years more.

https://www.openculture.com/?p=1090893
https://youtu.be/-Zoq7HiAjcU