Hello internet friends,

did you ever sit and wonder: Why are there so many knobs in GarageBand? Well, that article doesn’t help much, but it has many amazingly ugly screenshots.
(The answer might be: because there are so many knobs in bands.)

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Nerd Alert

Two weeks ago we talked about flightradar24 here. If you liked this, you might want to know How Flightradar24 conquered the skies – and why the Pope’s travel plans cause a surge in traffic

Nerd Alert (2)
(Side note: maybe I should have just called the whole newsletter nerd alert, because… well. You know.)

Also not the first time we talk about fictional maps – pretty much one year ago I linked to my still favorite twitter bot @unchartedatlas and in February we talked about how much we like books with maps. Now here is a really deep dive into fantasy maps and what they mean: Here at the End of All Things

Nerd Alert (3)

Planespotting, fantasy maps, how do we get this email to be even more nerdy? Well, let’s add maths and history! Did the Babylonians Beat the Greeks to Trigonometry By 1000 Years?
The answer – as usual – is “it might be” but the probability is pretty high. And hey, cuneiform.

Mushrooms!

Not a super nerdy topic, I guess, but hey: How Mushrooms Became Magic This is pretty fascinating.

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That’s all I have for you today, toodles!

Hello internet friends,

remember two years ago, when we learned that we’re post-#eatclean and that the avocado is overcado?

Well, turns out – and once again, we learn it from the Guardian – the whole clean eating thing is still around, even though it is thoroughly debunked. So let’s learn why we fell for clean eating.
(I don’t know. I was too lazy to prepare any food yesterday so I just ate a whole bunch of radishes with some bread. I guess that’s just terrible and not hashtaggable?)

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Spy plane news

You are probably familiar with flightradar24, the rather fun website/app that lets you check out planes while they fly over your head. Maybe you’re nerdy enough to know how these people get the data for that site: planes are equipped with a transmitter that sends their plane number, location and speed every couple of seconds just out into the world, mostly to help the air traffic controllers do their job. And even nerdier people (like, uhm, me) put little antennas in their windows to collect these transmissions and send it to all these different services.
Now turns out that spy planes – instead of just not sending out anything at all – send out innocent looking data, looking like any old random plane, just minding their own business. But if you look closely enough, you can spot them. Or you can let a computer do that work for you: BuzzFeed News Trained A Computer To Search For Hidden Spy Planes. This Is What We Found.

Phone news

Every time I (have to) give someone my phone number, I get a nervous twitch that takes a while to subside. Not only because I really don’t want anyone to call me but also because these days it is more than just a way to interrupt somebody: How Your Phone Number Became the Only Username That Matters

Underground Maps

It is probably the same in most other cities, too: Nobody Knows What Lies Beneath New York City
And while that was kind of understandable in the age of paper maps, it should not be the case in the age of digital mapping.

Woo-hoo

I know it is part of a PR push to drum up buzz for the new version of Duck Tales with their weird square-headed ducks but still, this is fun: The Story of the DuckTales Theme, History’s Catchiest Single Minute of Music

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Toodles!

Hello internet friends,

good news! We finally have eco-friendly glitter!
…
Oh well.

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Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari on Quitting the Internet, Loneliness, and Season 3 of Master of None is really worth reading. And the whole unplugging from the internet of content is a smart idea. Well… you know. Except what would happen to these emails here if I did that?
It’s not like anyone would want to read my ponderings on books I read.

Trent Reznor

Another interview with a creative person: In Conversation: Trent Reznor. He’s a bit the grumpy old man here but again, worth reading.

Bikes

This is pretty great: Inside the fearless bike movement tearing up London. Both the movement and the article.

McLaren

On the other spectrum of transportation is one of the greatest cars in the world. And now you know as well What Made the McLaren F1 the World’s Greatest Car.

Love Motel

I honestly don’t know what to make of these photos, but they sure are interesting: Under the Covers at Taiwan’s Tacky ‘Love Motels’. And now I know there is a big enough market for people with a Miata fetish to make one of those rooms work.

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Drink enough water, moisturize, take computer breaks.
Toodles!