💬 Quoted… “It’s mind-boggling the amount of stuff that’s trying to be done here.”

• Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has a to-do list longer than Drake’s… well, a mile long. The fund has been tasked with carrying out plans for a $48 billion property development in the desert, building a global airline to compete with current aviation giants, completing a merger with the PGA Tour, and overseeing a $100 billion investment into chips and electronics. And with all of this on the table – perhaps unsurprisingly – the Saudi wealth fund is quickly running out of money. Last month, officials said the fund’s cash levels fell by roughly three-quarters in 2023 compared to the previous year, reaching a total of ~$15 billion. Saudi officials say they plan to borrow large sums of money from international creditors to keep funding their ambitious projects, and are also planning to sell a significant amount of stock in Saudi Aramco, the state-run oil giant with a market cap of ~$2 trillion.

🪐 Stat of the Day: NASA is seeking four volunteers to spend a year doing their best impression of The Martian – aka living and working inside a 1,700-square-foot Mars simulator. Though keep in mind that not just anyone can apply. The volunteers are required to look like Matt Damon, walk like Matt Damon, and talk like Matt Damon have certain STEM qualifications and experience in the field.

🤔 Did You Know?... UPS plans out the routes for its delivery trucks so that ~90% of their turns are right turns, since left turns are seen as less efficient due to sitting in traffic longer. Which means UPS drivers checking the turns on their routes are consistently channeling Matthew McConaughey – all right, all right, all right.

📰 Worth a Read: Westarctica: The micronation with a real-world purpose → (Big Think)