Myanmar Military Coup Triggers Global Crisis: Myanmar's military seized power, detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders, effectively ending the country's experiment with democracy and sparking international condemnation.
Devastating Texas Winter Storm: A massive winter storm caused catastrophic, weeklong power outages across Texas, leading to over 200 deaths and exposing critical failures in the state's infrastructure.
Trump's Second Impeachment Trial Concludes: The former president was acquitted on charges of inciting the January 6 insurrection, with seven Republican senators voting to convict, but the total falling short of the required two-thirds majority.
COVID-19 Pandemic Developments: A "fake vaccine" ring was uncovered in China, while Tanzania's president questioned the safety of approved vaccines. Simultaneously, scientists warned of a potential deadlier variant circulating.
NASA's Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars: In a moment of stunning success, NASA's rover completed its 300-million-mile journey and successfully landed on Mars, a triumph of engineering and international cooperation.
February 2021 was a month of profound system failure. A literal power grid collapsed in Texas, a democratic system was overthrown in Myanmar, and a system of political accountability failed to convict in the US. The signal was one of flickering lights, unstable connections, and cascading failures.
The glitch of this era is this "failing grid." This artifact simulates that experience. The headlines of terrestrial failure flicker and short-circuit on a fragile network. Your cursor is an unstable current, causing sparks and outages, revealing the system's fragility.
The ghost in this machine is a perfect signal from an impossible distance. Periodically, a clean, red transmission from Mars—the successful landing of the Perseverance rover—cuts through the chaos. It is a reminder of what human systems are capable of at their best, a stark and beautiful contrast to the flickering, failing grid of our terrestrial reality.