Week 15, 2025 - Benefactors
Song of the week:
Top of mind
I had a random brainfart while watching a YouTube video about a customised car; an old WRX-style Subaru rethought for the modern era to celebrate years since Subaru entered WRC.
But that's not my point. My point is the track that featured in said video. Magarigawa is a stellar facility in Japan. It's a 3.8km, tight track that curls into an L-shape when viewed from above. It has rises and falls, as you'd expect from Japan. And it crests around a stunning facility unlike any paddock in the world. It's a luxury facility featuring beautiful waterfalls, artwork, contemporary architecture, etc. etc. Not the usual functional boxes to run pit manoevers in.
It's a private facility for the ultra rich, which feels a bit of a waste given how cool the circuit is. But ignoring that, what was interesting to me was that it's clearly a labour of love dreamed up and executed by someone in Chiba who's got cash to burn/invest in such a weird endeavour.
And it made me think of Ireland. Where in general, a lot of people have benefitted greatly from dividends, shares and general career success in tech, pharma, etc. Yet we somehow have not seen much of either investment into new startups that grow like a weed, or weird pseudo-hobbies that can become businesses.
Where are our race tracks? Art galleries? Exclusive car clubs? Etc. etc. London, Berlin, Tokyo, New York feature these sorts of things, and yet we don't.
And I wonder if part of it is that our culture inherently tells us to not be entrepreneurial, certainly not to stand out among the crowd (hence why everyone drives a grey or black Qashqai) or celebrate any success. If I was handed enough money to clear the mortgage and then go start something weird, I would definitely consider a weird restomod car company and associated race track!
Photo of the week
(via my flickr)
Tabs
- Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?
- Trumps education secretary does not know what AI is. A1 hire.
- DoJ standing down on crypto fraud
- Musk ragequits livestream
- Greenpeace calls on polluters to pay
- Oracle cloud compromised
- Cyberwarfare gets into virus spreading drones. I can't help but think that this will be deployed on civilian populations in the future.
- Nintendo will charge for use of the new C button
- Digital audio devices. MP3 players making a bit of a comeback.
- Hacktivists release trove of data