For former NASA space cadet Ron Garan, 63, there was only one thing on his mind when he was up in space, and it was the ‘sobering realisation’ that we Earthlings are ‘living a lie’. But don’t panic, it’s not that the earth is actually flat.

Garan experienced what is referred to as the ‘overview effect’ while he was up there. This is essentially where he had an uninterrupted view of our globe. This effect prompts a cognitive shift that many astronauts understandably feel when looking at Earth while floating in space – which researchers compare to a ‘state of awe with self-transcendent qualities’.

This awe-invoking experience can trigger ‘unexpected and overwhelming emotion’ for those who are brave enough to get onboard a rocket. And this is the exact experience that Ron had while spending 178 days in space, travelling more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits throughout his career at NASA.

NASA astronaut Ron Garan had quite the awakening while up in space (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)

During his time on the International Space Station (ISS), Ron drew some interesting conclusions about our way of life as we know it, while looking out of the window.

In a conversation with the Big Think, the New Yorker said that he realised that the things that most humans are worried about aren’t actually that big of a deal after all. But we should be a lot more concerned about global warming, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.

Sharing what he saw, Garan said: “When I looked out the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi-like flashes of lightning storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch them.

“And I saw the unbelievable thinness of our planet’s atmosphere. In that moment, I was hit with the sobering realisation that that paper-thin layer keeps every living thing on our planet alive.

The 62-year-old returned to Earth with a new perspective after experiencing the ‘overview effect’ (Erika Goldring/Getty Images)

“I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life. I didn’t see the economy. But since our human-made systems treat everything, including the very life-support systems of our planet, as the wholly owned subsidiary of the global economy, it’s obvious from the vantage point of space that we’re living a lie.”

“We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy”, Garan continued. “That’s when we’re going to continue our evolutionary process. “There’s this light bulb that pops up where they realise how interconnected and interdependent we all are.”

“We’re not going to have peace on Earth until we recognise the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality,” Garan added.

Hardy is well-known for his projects in the genre of crime. From Peaky Blinders to Inception, most of us are used to seeing Hardy on our TV or streaming screens.

Taboo is one of Hardy’s popular projects. The TV show was first aired in 2017 and explored the dark side of the 19th century.

In the series, Hardy plays main character James Keziah Delane, an adventurer who comes back to London during the 1812 war to rebuild his late father’s shipping empire. But his competitor and the government are after his inheritance at any cost.

The actor’s show was quite popular, but the second season has unfortunately been delayed since 2019 (Lia Toby/Getty Images)

Season one was eight episodes and it ended on February 28, 2017. A second season was planned to be released in 2019, as the writer of the show Steven Knight wrote six episodes. However, due to scheduling issues, as well as the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic, the progress of season two was stalled.

So, you can imagine how excited Taboo fans must have been when they saw Hardy post an image of the signature theme photo of Taboo on his Instagram feed today. Although Hardy has his comments switched off for Instagram, then tens of thousands of likes indicate how eager his followers are to learn more about the topic.

Speaking about a second season, Hardy previously expressed enthusiasm at a second season.

In 2021, he told Esquire: “The second season of Taboo is really, really important to me, and it’s taken a lot of thinking, because I really enjoyed the first one and I want to be really fulfilled by the second one.”

The actor also said that there was ‘a series… already written’, but he wasn’t sure on whether they would keep the script.

Tom Hardy sent fans in a frenzy with his cryptic post (Instagram/ @tomhardy)

On Reddit, users were going hard, excuse the pun, hoping that this impromptu Instagram post is a hint at there being a second season coming soon.

One user wrote: “I mean he’s done with Venom, could be, HOPEFULLY.”

Another typed: “Please!!! We need S2!”

One user expressed some uncertainty as to what it could mean: “just saw this and noticed that he limited comments on it. If this isn’t about season 2, he’s trolling magnificently.”

Back in 2023, Hardy’s production partner Dean Baker cleared things up in an interview with the Radio Times.

Baker said: “Currently we are working on a second season of Taboo.”

Hardy himself had also previously spoken about his ideas for the next season, and they were a bit out-there to say the least.

Back in 2021, he said: “In my head I was thinking, ‘Let’s say they get to America, they get to Canada, fast-forward to 1968, the Tet Offensive, the Vietnam War, look at the CIA, the Viet Cong, the French in Saigon.

“Take the Delaney family tree out in the jungle, and recreate the same family dynamics that were happening in London but with new people, thinking about how history and corruption repeats itself.

“It’s still Taboo, it’s still period, but it’s the Sixties.

“There’s something fun about that.”

While women’s combat sports have come a long way in the past couple of years, there’s still an important reason why sports such as boxing and MMA are divided by gender and weight class.

However, none of this matters to the people who stage events at Real Xtreme Fighting (RXF), especially when it comes to getting views.

According to RXF’s social media, the three women were Alicia Bonita, Denisa Costea, and Maria Adriana, while the men were Costica Prisecaru and Sebastian Rechinu.

The bout was put on by Romanian fighting company Real Xtreme Fighting (RXF)

On paper, three should theoretically beat two, but this doesn’t take into account that only two of the three women – Costea and Adriana – appear to have a combat background, whereas Prisecaru and Rechinu are both MMA fighters.

Meanwhile, Bonita describes herself as a dancer and OnlyFans model.

The women also twerked before to entertain fans before the unsurprisingly short-lived match got underway, and ended exactly the way you’re expecting.

Costea, Bonita, and Adriana struggled from the get go, as they struggled to land a single punch against the two men and were quickly knocked to the ground. The match ended in a win for the two men and multiple shocked viewers, who couldn’t believe what they’d just watched.

“2 men vs. 3 Instagram models. How is this legal,” wrote X account Happy Punch, who initially shared the clip on the platform.

“This is disgusting. How does something like this get sanctioned,” one person replied to the clip, while a second added: “Whoever allows this to happen shouldn’t be allowed to licence fights. It’s disgusting behaviour.”

“2 experienced male fighters vs 3 instagram girls.. who authorised this fight,” a third penned.

another user replied: “That’s it send a barrage of comets we had a nice run but I think there’s no coming back from this one.”

The two on three stunt isn’t the only bonkers fight RXF has recently hosted either, with the company previously sanctioning a two on one fight featuring two women and one man last year.

The fight was uncomfortable viewing for many (RXF)

More recently, the fight company chucked 10 amateur lightweight fighters against two professional heavyweights for our viewing pleasure.

Unexpectedly, the match quickly descended into absolute carnage as 10 men attempted to pile on two.

The pro fighting pair were eventually declared winners, proving that weight and fighting background are more important than biology or numbers.