Mohawk

February 25, 2019

Hello internet friends,

all things considered I’m quite happy that you’re such a self-selected exklusive group of people. At least this way I don’t get into a position where someone wants me to sell his yacht to you. After all: that’s not fun. The Lonely Life of a Yacht Influencer
(I’m even more glad I don’t get asked to sell pharma stuff to you. That would feel really icky: Health Care Sponcon: Where Big Pharma Meets Instagram Influencer I mean – I’d still do it for the right price, but I wouldn’t feel good about it. At least until the money is in my account.)

These Are the 24 Sounds Humans Use to Communicate Without Words
The next time you’re on a phone call, why not play with the interactive portion of this article in the background?

It’s a bit annoying and rather embarrassing that I actually really liked the last season of Survivor US. And since I always like a look behind the scenes, this way too long article about the first episode was quite in my wheelhouse: All hands on deck: Behind the scenes of a Survivor marooning
Good god, it’s such a dumb, dumb show.

Internet of Things news!
Nike’s self-lacing sneakers turn into bricks after faulty firmware update – I nominate “My left shoe won’t even reboot.” for the sentence of the year. It won’t win, but it can still be proud.
A software glitch is throwing riders off of Lime scooters – ouch.
Now let me get one thing straight: I’m not Mr-IoT-is-stupid. Or wait, let me rephrase this: Yes, most IoT-stuff is pretty stupid, but that’s what is so fun about it. I’m not a big fan of things being tied to some company’s server (and their subscription service) but when things can connect to the internet, that’s fun, right?

Dinosaur news!
(Oh boy, this week I have a lot of links. Don’t get used to it.)
Look at this magnificent killer chicken: Meet Tiny Rex, the diminutive T. rex paleontologists just found in Utah. And when you’re done with this, let’s turn the Dino-awesome-meter to eleven and look at this: Badass Dinosaur With a ‘Mohawk’ of Spikes Uncovered in Patagonia.

And as a last thing: look at this huge map of 11-century trade routes. I could spend hours with the zoomable version.

Toodles!

Mirrorworld 26000

February 18, 2019

Hello internet friends,

sometimes there are weird ideas in people’s head and I really can’t follow them. Who, for example, thought that Twitter is a good platform for an interview? How hard is it to have a conversation on Twitter? So hard even the CEO can’t do it.
Quelle surprise. It used to be a platform to talk about your breakfast and now it’s an app that makes you feel bad as a service.

Just like every year is the year of Linux on the desktop, every is the year that AR finally had a breakthrough. This time it’s going to have a creepy name, too! AR Will Spark the Next Big Tech Platform—Call It Mirrorworld
All snark aside – this actually sounds pretty old-school-Wired and if you scroll down all the way to the byline, you’ll understand why.

I can hardly plan for tomorrow, so I’m always amazed by people who plan a long time into the future. In this case, a couple of thousand years: The 26,000-Year Astronomical Monument Hidden in Plain Sight
I was a disappointed, though – I saw the headline and thought it was 26,000 years old and probably made by aliens, but instead it was just some dude in the 30s.

I guess if you read this, you already like email newsletters. So it might be a bit silly to link you to an article praising email newsletters, but alas, here we go: Oh God, It’s Raining Newsletters

That’s all, folks. Take care and sleep well!

No More People

February 11, 2019

Hello internet friends,

did you know that Currywurst is 70 years old this year? Well, me neither. Luckily there’s a coin to celebrate this anniversary and oh boy… just look at it.

Just like a plague of locusts, humans are everywhere and the worst. And it is common knowledge that this is just going to get worse and worse and worse until every cm on earth is covered in human.
Now some people say: not so fast, common knowledge. The World Might Actually Run Out of People.

“This might be something for your newsletter.” Indeed it is, thanks Ben.
A 25-Year-Old Dinosaur Jr. Song Is a Hit in Japan. Nobody Knows Why. – there are some hints in the article, but maybe it’s just a sudden attack of 90s nostalgia. Either this or the rent-an-uncles play the music of their youth to the children of today.

Hey, if you’re still using Twitter – why not clean out your follow list with this fun app? Tokimeki Unfollow
KonMari all the things, I guess.

Here is the Immigrant Song, performed by Transformers. Enjoy.

Toodles!

Ghost Town

February 4, 2019

Hello internet friends!

When I just opened my bookmarks folder to look for stuff I found for you this week I learned one amazing fact: It turns out when you don’t put stuff in a folder it doesn’t magically apprear.

The author explains what the hell is going on in the fourth paragraph, but until then the title confused me so much I just had to read the whole article and it is pretty entertaining: Reading in The Horse Latitudes

We all should ask ourselves: How long could my murderer pretend to be me online?
Or maybe not. Because the longer I think about it, the scarier it gets.

Phew, now that is a problem I avoided by never being in that club from the very beginning:
What Happens When You Age Out of the Cool Kids’ Club at Work
Sounds horrible. Poor formerly-cool olds.

I hope at least one of the links was of interest to you. If not, you might like a video of Chris Harris being very excited about very exciting cars, a blogpost about the fun and weird internet from back then (it turns into a sales pitch for a react-based website builder, if you’re smart you know to stop when that starts) or rejoice in the fact that The Specials are having a reunion and a new album.

Toodles!