💡Philip K. Dick's Beam of Light

🎬 Night at the Museum rides again!

July 10, 2025

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New-Fangled News for Boomers, Gen X and Anyone Else Trying to Keep Up with Technology

Top Stories from the Newsroom

✂ Skelley’s Snippets: Folding phones, Streaming gold, 3D printers evolve

đŸŠ·đŸ›ž Philip K. Dick’s divine inspiration during a visit to the dentist

🗿 The Night at the Museum franchise hopes to reanimate box office success

Skelley’s Snippets ✂

 đŸ“± TechCrunch has a write-up on Samsung’s new foldable phones and they’re not crazy expensive. The Z Flip7 FE is under 900 bucks, and it does the cool flip thing. The idea of setting it up on a table to video chat without holding it sounds kind of great. Or just checking directions or skipping songs without opening the whole phone. It’s the first time these phones feel built for regular use, not just showing off.

đŸ“ș The golden-age of television shows doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon. Sure there is a lot of dreck, but finding a good story on the multitude of network platforms is easier than panning for gold in the 1840s. There are many shiny nuggets just waiting to be plucked out of the stream (see what I did there). Two new favorites, Netflix’s Department Q follows the adventures of an emotionally broken Scottish detective just given a cold-case beat and Apple TVs Dope Thief follows the exploits of two Philly crooks pretending to be DEA agents when they rob the wrong people. Hours of binge-watching ensues. Enjoy!

đŸ–šïž If you’ve been on the sidelines with 3D printing, the Bambu Lab H2D might finally pull you in. This thing doesn’t just print, it also laser engraves, cuts, and draws. It’s basically a whole workshop in one box. It can print with multiple materials, scan your project with onboard cameras, and even auto-calibrate itself so you're not constantly fiddling with settings. You could go from prototyping bike parts to making a custom gift card without switching machines. This isn’t a toy, it’s a legit creative tool. Youtuber “Clough42” does a deep dive on this next generation 3D printer.

đŸ”« The Real Life Sci-Fi of Philip K. Dick

Before Blade Runner, Minority Report, or The Man in the High Castle made it to screens, Philip K. Dick was a broke, paranoid, often-ignored genius living off canned food in California. His stories weren’t just imaginative. They were personal. He genuinely believed reality was a simulation, long before The Matrix made it cool.

In 1974, after a dental visit and a mysterious pink beam of light (yes, really), Dick claimed he was hit with a download of divine information. He thought he was living two lives at once: one as a sci-fi writer in the 1970s, the other as a persecuted Christian in ancient Rome. Out of that weirdness came VALIS, one of his most mind-bending novels.

Though he died broke in 1982, months before Blade Runner premiered, Hollywood found gold in his stories. Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, and Minority Report (based on his 1956 short story) all explored the same thing Dick obsessed over: What is real, and who is controlling the narrative?

Few know that he wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which became Blade Runner) after grieving the death of his twin sister and questioning the soul of machines and humans. That emotional complexity is why his work still hits.

Philip K. Dick didn’t just predict the future of tech. He felt it coming. His life may have been a chaotic mess, but his stories laid the foundation for today’s digital paranoia with a side of acid-drenched prophecy. -CP

đŸ”But is Crystal Coming Back?

Crystal the Monkey is Hollywood’s brightest animal star, stealing scenes alongside Oscar winners and comedians alike. With over $2.5 billion in box office grosses, she dazzled in “Night at the Museum,” “Hangover 2,” and “Zookeeper.” Guided by trainer Tom Gunderson, Crystal’s charisma makes her a silver screen legend.

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