So I’ve been reading about some random stuff lately, and these things have been sitting in my head for a while. You know how it is—you start with skyscrapers covered in forests, end up at the grocery store aisle, and somehow land on Bambi, of all things.
Anyway, figured I’d share. You might find them interesting too.
Buildings with actual forests on them
I love buildings covered in greenery. Walls, balconies, entire facades—just filled with plants. It’s brilliant. I’m a total black thumb—I can kill a cactus—but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating it. I grew up in an Appalachian town surrounded by trees. I’d sit for hours just looking at all that green. There’s something calming about it. Give me a good book and a spot under some trees, and I’m happy. So, when I discovered skyscrapers with literal forests growing on them? I was hooked.
The idea isn’t totally new—people have been sticking plants on buildings since the Hanging Gardens of Babylon around 600 BC. But it took until the 1980s for someone to really figure out how to do modern living walls, and even longer for someone to think: what if we didn’t just add a wall of plants, but covered an entire skyscraper in an actual forest?
Enter Stefano Boeri. In 2007, he was in Dubai watching glass towers turn the city into an oven, and he had this thought: What if we just… put trees on buildings instead? By 2014, his first “Vertical Forest” had been completed in Milan. Now there are 8 completed, 8 under construction, and 24 more being designed around the world.
Milan has these two towers—Bosco Verticale, “Vertical Forest”—covered in 800 trees, 4,500 shrubs, and 20,000 plants.
And it works. These buildings absorb 44,000 pounds of CO2 yearly, drop indoor temperatures by a few degrees, and within the first year, over 1,600 birds and insects moved in.
I keep wondering, though—how do you water all that greenery on a skyscraper? What happens if it’s abandoned? I picture nature taking over completely—either wild and beautiful, or a complete overgrown mess. But maybe that’s the point.
Best part? The Trudo Vertical Forest in Eindhoven is social housing—rent capped at $510/month. Not some billionaire project.
What if the measure of a modern city wasn’t how far it sprawls, but how much living forest it can hold in the sky?
The grocery store conspiracy
Everyone’s talking about ultraprocessed foods lately. The Lancet just published a whole series on it, California passed a law about it for school lunches, and headlines everywhere. But here’s the part they’re dancing around.
The takeover didn’t happen overnight. In 1963, R.J. Reynolds—yes, the tobacco company—bought Hawaiian Punch. That was just the beginning. Big Tobacco went on a shopping spree—Del Monte, Nabisco, General Foods, Kraft, 7UP. They brought their addiction-engineering expertise straight to your pantry. By the 1980s, ultraprocessed foods were everywhere.
Now? 70% of U.S. grocery stores are ultraprocessed—engineered to hit the “bliss point” that hijacks your brain’s “I’m full” signal. The food industry spent 60 years removing actual food from our food.
Get this: people eating ultraprocessed foods ate 500 more calories per day than people eating whole foods—even when both were equally available. They just couldn’t stop.
The damage? Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, depression, and early death. Just 10% more in your diet ups your early death risk by 3%.
And food corporations made $2.9 trillion between 1962 and 2021, with over half going to ultraprocessed manufacturers. It’s Big Tobacco’s playbook all over again—engineer addiction, fund fake research, market to kids.
Want to spot this stuff? Simple rule: if the ingredient list has things you’d never cook with at home, put it back.
Trying to go analog
Remember when going digital was supposed to make life easier? We dove in headfirst—smartphones, social media, streaming everything. Analog got pushed aside. But somewhere along the way, “easier” turned into exhausting. Infinite scroll. Constant notifications. Your attention sliced smaller and smaller.
And now? We’re tired. Our brains weren’t designed for this.
I found this piece called “The Analog Life: 50 Ways to Unplug and Feel Human Again," and something just clicked. Going analog isn’t about rejecting technology. It’s about taking back your mental health. Give your brain a break. There’s life beyond the infinite scroll.
Going analog is about resisting the tech industry. They design their apps to be addictive on purpose—to grab your attention and keep you scrolling so they can profit off every minute you’re online.
So I’m trying to go analog. Reading actual books before bed. Brewing my latte in the morning and sitting on the porch without my phone. When spring comes, I’ll be watching the Appalachian mountains wake up. Writing my to-do list by hand. Watching sunsets—trying to be more of an opacarophile.
Just trying to reclaim my own attention.
Bambi, unfiltered
I remember watching Bambi as a kid. Thought he was adorable. And it was heartbreaking watching all the animals flee the forest during that fire. Classic Disney, right?
Here’s what I didn’t know: Disney’s Bambi, released in 1942, was based on an adult novel never meant for children. Walt was moved by the story and hated hunting, but he worked from a faulty English translation that made it seem like “a delightful animal tale.” He missed the darker political allegory. So he turned it into something families could watch together. The original Bambi is bleak as hell.
Felix Salten’s 1923 novel wasn’t about cute forest friends. It’s an existential meditation on violence, survival, and death. Bambi’s mom getting shot? That’s actually one of the lighter moments.
Salten was Jewish, writing in Vienna as antisemitism was rising. His book is about fear, random death, and the realization that there’s no such thing as safety. Less “woodland adventure,” more “nature is beautiful and terrifying, and we’re all just trying not to die.”
Disney gave it hope and sentimentality. Which, okay—six-year-olds probably don’t need existential dread. But it makes you wonder what else gets sanitized before it reaches us.
Male birth control is finally happening
Women have had the pill for over 60 years. Men? Condoms or vasectomy. That’s it.
Think about that for a second. Women have been dealing with the side effects, the responsibility, and the health risks for over six decades. And it’s only now that anyone’s seriously investing in male options? Kind of tells you where the priorities have been.
But things might actually be changing.
But things are moving. A hormone-free pill just passed its first human safety trial in 2025. There’s a daily gel that 86% of guys responded to within 8 weeks. Even a long-acting option (Plan A) might be available in 2026.
Will guys actually use it? 75% said yes. Turns out a lot of them want more control and are willing to deal with the side effects women have been managing for decades.
Matthew Treviño, a participant in the UC Davis trial, said it perfectly: “Maybe the burden is on the wrong side. I kind of think it’s unfair that it only lands on the women.”
Makes you wonder—why did it take this long?
What caught your attention this week? I’d love to know what got you thinking.