Baseball is back tonight! Time to start banging those trash cans, booing the Astros and beaning those cheaters. The NBA and NHL will also be returning next week as we start to see some sense of a return to normal. Will college football be next? One can hope.

On Tuesday, I saw the International Space Station whiz through the dark Alberta sky twice over the course of 90 minutes. It’s incredible to think about how fast that thing is moving and how easy it is to spot. I will be going out with some friends this weekend to search for Comet NEOWISE in the northern sky. Let’s hope for more clear skies.

Anyways onto Flakes...

Frosted Flakes

Nebrasketball 2020: Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastodons Preseason Preview | Basketball | Corn Nation

Enough talking about the Huskers, though. This isn’t about them, but breaking down their second scheduled opponent: Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastodons (formerly part of IPFW, until they split about two years ago). If you don’t think Mastodons are one of the coolest mascots in college sports, then you’re probably a fan of everyone being the Tigers, Bulldogs, or Wildcats.

Greg Austin Thinks Jaimes Can Be One of Football’s Best Left Tackles | Football | Hail Varsity

“Brenden (Jaimes) has the opportunity to be one of the best in the conference and one of the best in the country at his position at left tackle,” Austin said Tuesday night during an appearance on the Husker Sports Nightly radio show. “Really looking forward to seeing him grow and mature into the player he was recruited to come here and be.”

Mailbag: What Does a Successful Season Look Like in 2020? | Sports | Hail Varsity

Hail Varsity staff members Mike Babcock, Jacob Padilla, Greg Smith, Erin Sorensen and Brandon Vogel tackle your questions about the latest news in Husker Nation.

Padding the Stats: Final Thoughts on JD Spielman’s Departure | Football | Hail Varsity

Spielman takes with him a whole heck of a lot of production. It’s perfectly reasonable to be excited about Nebraska’s shiny new receiving corps, but that shouldn’t get in the way of acknowledging how big of a loss he is.

Tight Ends, Defensive Lines and What Else? A Look At Nebraska’s Remaining 2021 Recruiting Priorities | Football | Lincoln Journal Star

As far as the space remaining in the class, there are still some moving pieces, but the numbers suggest Nebraska’s smaller 2021 class might not end up that small. The best guess here presently is that NU will end up with space for somewhere upward of 20 but to nearly a full 25-man class.

Most Intriguing Huskers: Sophomore OLB Niko Cooper | Football | Lincoln Journal Star

The 6-foot-5, 220-pounder is one of five junior college players NU signed in the 2020 class — and one of four defensive JUCO transfers — and steps into a position group that has as much unknown as any on the roster.

Husker Camp Countdown: Deontai Williams | Football | Omaha World-Herald

When Williams is healthy, he makes plays. But season-ending injuries in the 2016 and 2019 openers have cost him essentially two full campaigns. Now armed with a robust knowledge of NU’s scheme, he’s a strong bet to start opposite fellow senior Marquel Dismuke. Watch for the hard-hitting Williams to be a regular around the ball in his final college season.

Travel

The Grim Future of Business Travel | Travel | Axios

People traveling for work make up a big share of hotel occupants. Hotel occupancy in the U.S. — which stood at 65% in February — dropped to a low of 22% in April and rose to around 46% as of the beginning of July.

Why Travelers Visit This Indian City for Pickles | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

It’s a scorching afternoon in July and fresh mangoes have just been rolled past the gates of the pickle factory in Panipat, a city 55 miles north of Delhi. It’s mango season, which means my grandfather’s pickle factory will run 24 hours a day to pickle the raw fruit in bulk and make enough to meet demand for the entire year.

The 26 Most Beautiful Places in Europe | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

It may be one of the smaller continents, but what Europe lacks in size, it makes up for in variety: The most beautiful places in Europe range from luxurious beaches, fields of bluebells, and limestone cliffs, to some of the best mountain views on the planet.

Horseback Riding Brings Power and Peace for Black Equestrians | Animals | Conde Nast Traveler

Images of the Compton Cowboys, Houston’s Nonstop Riders, and other horseback riding Black protesters went viral in early June. Riding through the streets after George Floyd’s murder, they subverted the old narrative that horses carry mounted police high above Black pedestrians. Instead, we saw horses uplifting Black people.

Venice to Limit Gondola Riders Because ‘Tourists Weigh More’ | Travel | Travel and Leisure

Venice’s Gondola Association recently announced the maximum number of passengers on a classic tour of the city’s narrow canals will now be five instead of six people due to the “ballooning average weight of tourists,” CNN reported. Taxi rides on the larger ‘da parada’ gondolas through the Grand Canal have also been reduced from 14 to 12 passengers.

British Airways Retires Boeing 747 Due to Coronavirus Pandemic | Travel | Lonely Planet

When Boeing debuted the 747 in 1969, it was a logistical marvel that ushered in a new era of travel, one in which long-haul flights were possible, and packed with more travelers than ever headed for far-flung locals on direct routes. Synonymous with luxury thanks to its upper deck bar and lounge space, not to mention the prestigious first class seats in the nose.

The CDC Has Extended Its ‘No Sail Order’ For Cruise Ships | Travel | Lonely Planet

Travelers in the US who wish to embark on a cruise will now have to wait until October, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has decided to extend the “no sail order” period from 24 July to 30 September in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A New ‘Smart’ Face Mask Can Translate Speech Into Eight Languages | Travel | Lonely Planet

Dubbed ‘C-FACE’, the plastic smart mask is placed on the outside of a standard sized mask and connects to the wearer’s smartphone using Bluetooth and transcribes conversations through an app. At the moment, the mask translates from Japanese into Chinese, English, French, Indonesian, Korean, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese. The mask also helps amplify the user’s voice through their phone.

Britain’s Newly Discovered Ancient Sites | Travel | BBC

In the past few months, archaeologists have pored over hi-tech LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans to discover a whole new timeline of human occupation across this landscape, from prehistoric burial mounds to hidden Roman roads and, perhaps most intriguingly, hundreds of previously unsuspected medieval farmsteads and settlements.

An Abandoned British Island Reclaimed By Nature | Travel | BBC

Marooned in the South Atlantic Ocean between Argentina and Antarctica, the glaciated peaks and billowing tundra grasses of South Georgia cast a dramatic scene. Though the crescent-shaped island is technically a British Overseas Territory, it’s also claimed by Argentina and is so remote and hard to get to that many people in the United Kingdom have never even heard of it.

Nakhchivan: The World’s Most Sustainable Nation? | Travel | BBC

Chances are you’ve never heard of Nakhchivan. Jammed between Armenia, Iran and Turkey on the Transcaucasian plateau, this autonomous republic of Azerbaijan is one of the most isolated outposts of the former Soviet Union and a place few travelers ever visit.

More Reading Material

Why You Need to Plan For Failure As Much As You Do Success | Business | Inc

What’s often missing in this discussion, of course, is the space needed to make those kinds of mistakes. For small-business owners, especially those getting started or struggling to get by, having enough in savings can be the difference between having to close or having another six months, year, or more to keep pursuing their goals.

Best New Productivity Apps for 2020 | Business | Fast Company

As such, the emphasis in the productivity apps below is largely about tuning out distractions, eliminating inefficiencies, and increasing organization, with a particular focus on finding the hidden gems instead of telling you about mainstream hits you already know.

How Coronavirus is Changing Local Food System Design | Food | Bloomberg

Inside the grocery store, the rise in food delivery raises its own set of design questions: What happens when more than half the customers are actually delivery shoppers whose goal is to find products as quickly and efficiently as possible?

Meet the United States’s Only Female Lighthouse Keeper | Culture | Atlas Obscura

For the past 17 years, Snowman has served as the keeper of Boston Light, a centuries-old lighthouse, out on a freckle of treeless land in Boston Harbor, in Massachusetts. It’s a lifelong love story—at 10, she first visited the island with her father.

America’s Innovation Engine Is Slowing | Technology | The Atlantic

Over the past century, the U.S. has consistently attracted the world’s most inquiring minds and skilled workers, despite an immigration system that is in no way optimized for that purpose. More than half of American startups that became companies valued at $1 billion or more, a category that includes Google, Tesla, Stripe, and Uber.

Inside America’s Two Billion Dollar Research Hub | Technology | Forbes

Among the government’s wilder Mitre orders: a prototype tool that can hack into smartwatches, fitness trackers and home thermometers for the purposes of homeland security; software to collect human fingerprints from social media websites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the FBI; support in building what the FBI calls the biggest database of human anatomy and criminal history in the world.

Spectacular Flower Crowns Rule in Ukraine | Culture | National Geographic

Worn for centuries by girls and young women to symbolize purity and fertility—and a mainstay at festivals and weddings—the wreaths are believed to have pagan origins that predate the introduction of Christianity to the Eastern Slavic world in the 10th century. Today, however, they are part of a resurgence of traditional culture that Ukrainians are embracing in daily life.

Surprise Cave Discovery May Double the Time People Lived In the Americas | History | National Geographic

When researchers first arrived at a cave high in the desert mountains of north-central Mexico, they hoped to learn what the environment was like there thousands of years ago. But the unexpected discovery of what they believe is an ancient projectile point led to a decade-long excavation that could rewrite the history of the Americas.

One Last Thing

Today is the day Comet NEOWISE will be the closest to Earth. Go check it out if you have the chance.