Happy Friday! If you're new to Now I Know, you'll notice that today's format differs from the rest of the week. On Fridays, I pause to write the "Weekender," my "week in review" type of thing, or to share something else I think you may find interesting. Thanks for reading! — Dan
I Was Wrong: Artemis II Was Cool
Hi!
Two weeks ago, as the Artemis II mission around the moon was, well, on its way to the moon, I told you that I wasn’t all that excited. As someone who is hardwired to be more curious than most, and who has intentionally focused on developing my curiosity muscle even further, that was uncharacteristic. But for reasons I couldn’t quite pin down, I didn’t really care about the mission that much — I didn’t watch the launch, for example, and didn’t mind that I missed it whatsoever.
But, a week ago Friday, at 8:07 PM my time, I found myself sitting in my family room with one of my kids, watching the capsule splash down. We had been sitting there for at least 20 minutes, both in awe — NASA and the CSA had somehow sent people farther away then ever before, and landed them safely back on Earth, and estimated the landing time to the minute.
What changed this for me? The pictures. Specifically, these three.
Wow. Wow. and Wow.
(More pictures here, but those are my favorites.)
So: I was wrong. This mission was awesome, and I can’t wait for the next one.
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The Now I Know Week In Review
Monday: The Good Advice That The DMV Rejected: This is about a license plate. The next day, one of my kids and I saw one that read “K14-3FE,” which isn’t the format of a standard NY State plate. I’m not entirely sure what it means — if you have suggestions, share them. (At first, I thought it was about potassium and iron, but then I realized “143” is shorthand for “I love you” and “FE” probably means “forever,” and “K” could be someone’s name or initial. That’s the theory I’m going with unless you all have other, better suggestions.)
Tuesday: The Cars That Never Leave The Airport: I wonder if they have license plates? Probably not.
Wednesday: The Big Brick Loophole: Why pay taxes when you can make your house look funky instead?
Thursday: The Fugitive Goat of Fairbanks: Goats: currying favor with their neighbors.
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Long Reads and Other Things
Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:
1) “It Was the Most Violent Prison in America. Then the Guards Went on Strike” (GQ, 41 minutes, January 2026). I probably should have shared this last week, when I went on my little rant about Lord of the Flies.
2) “The Lost Art of Reading an Actual Book” (Esquire, 6 minutes, January 2026). The subhead: “What happens when people stop reading books? We’re starting to see what a postliterate society looks like—and it’s very lame.” It’s not lost on me that this article only has a six-minute read time.
3) Not a long read, but probably more fun: Fold’NFly, a website with dozens of paper airplane designs that you can — and should! — build yourself. Get outside and fly some paper planes!
Have a great weekend!
Dan