Hello internet friends,

I’ve had declining hair for a while now and yet every summer I am surprised again that the sun actually has an effect on my head. Maybe I should get some sort of person who holds an umbrella over my all the time? Or maybe just a hat, but that seems overkill.

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Same.

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Cat Scan

Now, all things considered, I’m more a dog person than a cat person. Mostly because I start to look like an extra in a zombie movie right after a cat was somewhere near. And yet, this is fascinating: Watch the History of Cat Domestication in Three Minutes

Beep Beep

Maybe I’m a bit stupid, after all I’m not in San Francisco, but – isn’t this just a private bus line? Lyft’s New Shuttle Service Is More Convenient Than Lyft Line

Wood

These are pretty incredible: Now You Can Download 2,500 Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Library of Congress
I might just have spent a little too much time clicking through these.

Merch

✊ Resistance!
Well. More like Resistance™ – because capitalism is really good at turning everything into a commodity: The Resistance Will Be Merchandised.

Coke

If you watch a comedic movie that was sort of aimed at more grown-up people, you probably see at least one person doing coke. Why? How Did Cocaine Become The Drug Of Choice In Hard-R Comedies?
(I thought it was because everybody in Hollywood is on the stuff anyway all the time, but apparently there are other reasons.)

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As usual, folks – comment, like, subscribe and hit that bell button.
Or not. Enjoy the rest of the week.

Toodles!

Hello internet friends!

First minor sun burn of the year: ✔
On the top of my feet, if only for the reason that it is the most annoying place to have that, now that I wear more closed shoes today at work.

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Gassy

Humanity is now breeding cows for secondary characteristics: Canada Is Using Genetics to Make Cows Less Gassy
I wonder if it is somehow possible to use that on humans, too?

Roady

This is pretty cool: The major Roman Roads in the style of a subway map.

Poppy

I know. But. This article is actually really good: Welcome to Poppy’s World. (And hey, she did get a shout-out at the latest Apple Keynote, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
In the article they mention an ad campaign for Sanrio. Part of that is an interview which includes this gem of a dialogue:

Sweet Happy News: When is the last time you really felt alive?
That Poppy: I feel alive every time my phone is re-charged.
Sweet Happy News: Amazing.

Sunny

China just switched on the world’s largest floating solar power plant and that is pretty, pretty awesome. I mean – why waste all this free energy we get from the sun all the time?

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That’s all I have for now.
Toodles!

Hello internet friends,

did you ever wonder how fireflies in Thailand synchronize their blinking? Yeah, me neither. But now I know and it is fascinating. And the webpage that explains it is absolutely wonderful.

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Computer Talk

Just now as I am writing this the latest Apple keynote thing ended. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Let’s talk about real computers instead and what happened with those back in the days: What Really Happened with Vista
Medium Dot Com says it takes 27 minutes to read it, sooooo… about how long Vista lasted from start-up to the first background process crashing.

Butt Talk

So apparently this is a topic? Why did my boyfriend like Emily Ratajkowski’s butt on Instagram?

Bird Talk

A warning, just in case: Two Escaped Raptors Are Still At Large in North Carolina
Not dinosaurs, though. Talking about big birds – did you ever wonder about Why Flamingos Are More Stable on One Leg Than Two?

Brick Talk

How Lego clicked: the super brand that reinvented itself – nothing really new in that article, but it’s still nicely put together.
Meanwhile in assorted Lego talk, a nice love letter to the Lego Movie’s cracked space man helmet: Cracked Helmets and Being Understood

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Toodles! (And don’t forget, you don’t really need all the new iMacs and iPads and things.)

Hello internet friends,

annoyed that it is Monday already? Well, you’re probably less annoyed than these rattlesnakes being pestered with a drone.

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Web Content

We humans have a brain (usually) and a spine (some) and that’s how we think and handle the various parts of our body. But not every animal works like this – so, for example, how do spiders and octopuses think? The Thoughts of a Spiderweb

Cheese Content

Living just over the boarder from Switzerland, their various cheese dishes – mostly fondue and raclette – were a very normal part of my upbringing. And given that “melting cheese” is one of the great culinary achievements it is important to know The Science of Melting Cheese.

Car Content

In this case actual literal car content: Singapore ‘vending machine’ dispenses Ferraris, Lamborghinis.
I know this concept with Smart cars over here, but… wow. (Unrelated: the movie adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians is currently filming.)

Rihanna and Lupita Nyong’o Content

I really like everything about this: A meme come true: Rihanna and Lupita Nyong’o to star in film based on tweet
Tweet-to-Netflix is the content version of Farm-to-Table, right?

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Now go outside, have a drink.
Toodles!

Hello internet friends,

hey, it is still Monday-ish. Stop complaining. (Hahaha. As if someone would complain.)

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Anker

If you bought an accessory for your smartphone-ish device on Amazon lately and especially if you picked the one with the rating over the one that is a tiny bit cheaper, you probably bought something from Anker. (And – free consumer advice: if you didn’t you probably should have. I have a whole lot of their stuff and I’m very satisfied, indeed.)
The Verge has more: How Anker is beating Apple and Samsung at their own accessory game

Turdly

Neural networks seem to be fun. At least if we use them for something useful – like coming up with new names for colors: An AI invented a bunch of new paint colors that are hilariously wrong

Before Effects

These days every single moving picture looks like it has been thoroughly manipulated on a computer. But how did they do these things before that was possible? Well, at least for one aspect you’ll know after you’ve clicked here: When TV Logos Were Physical Objects (That Eurovision thing is amazing.)

Widgets

I haven’t actually seen a fidget spinner in real life but I am already sick of the internet jokes about them. I’m even sicker of people who decided that these probably extremely harmless thingies are in any way dangerous or bad. Honestly, don’t be grumpy. Every generation has their useless toy, the kids these days have the fidget spinner. Apparently this is something that needs to be said: In Defense of Liking Things

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That was quite alright, wasn’t it?

Toodles!

Hello internet friends,

if you use twitter – and oh boy, do I understand a “oh hell no!” reaction to that idea – you probably have seen the account that rates dogs. Today we learn about the guy behind it: We Rate Dogs – Matt Nelson Turned Joke Twitter Account Into Successful Business Overall he seem to be a pretty okay dude.

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@dino_rates

This is Nodo. He likes to eat plants and looks fantastic in his armor. 12/10 would pet.

The Amazing Dinosaur Found (Accidentally) by Miners in Canada – that is indeed pretty amazing. I can’t really see the feathers, though.

@convo_rates

This is Talking About Weather. It helps to connect people who might not have much in common and works well to bridge awkward silences. 10/10 would talk again.

Letter of Recommendation: Talking About the Weather – I’m all for it. At the moment I have to interact with a whole bunch of different people and since somehow everybody is either talking about football or the weather and I don’t know anything about football, I’m all for having this rather safe subject.

@car_rates

These are Group B rally cars. They’re very fast and loud and amazingly unsafe. 13/10 would watch.

Group B rally cars are awesome, and we just drove some – to be fair, they “only” drove two of the not all that famous ones, but these are still lovely little cars.

@clone_rates

These are Guy Fieri, the Guy From Smash Mouth, and the Guy From Insane Clown Posse. They’re probably clones.
And now we need to break character – they’re probably not very good clones, either.

But the theory that they are clones is a good one: A Unified Theory of Guy Fieri, the Guy From Smash Mouth, and the Guy From Insane Clown Posse Being the Same Person (and/or Clones) – so there is that. Let’s just do it this way. 11/10 would meme again.

@robot_rates

This is robot falcon. It warns real birds of dangerous areas. What a hero. 14/10 how nice.

Robo-Falcons Will Scare Off Actual Live Birds at the Edmonton Airport – If that works this sounds like a great solution. And maybe even fun for someone who gets to chase birds with that little drone.

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Toodles and きっと勝つ!

Hello internet friends,

it is Monday again. The weekend is over. But what is a weekend, really? A Marxist might point out that the weekend is an act of corporate trickery, a dangling carrot that keeps workers tethered to their jobs.

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Rollercoaster

I pretty much enjoy the diverse Tycoon games – you might remember them from yore – Transport Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon and some more. I don’t enjoy them as much as this guy, though: Player Spends A Decade Polishing Epic Theme Park In Rollercoaster Tycoon 2
And that is indeed a pretty epic theme park.

Listening

Good god. More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads

Runner

I honestly don’t know what to think about the trailer for Blade Runner 2049.
Mostly it is… too much? We’ll see. I’m not hoping for much.

Railroad

I mean, sure – Japan’s Newest Train Is Basically a Luxury Hotel on Rails – but which Belgian detective will have to solve a murder on that one?

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That’s all for this week. Stay strong.
Toodles!

Hello internet friends,

let’s start with some great news: We are going to Mars![1]

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eBooks

I like to read a lot, usually medium-agnostic. Paper, digital, whatever. (In fact, if I could, I’d have a “eat, sleep, read, repeat” lifestyle, but… eh.) Apparently one of my favourite ways to read – if only because it hides my tsundoku better – is just not cool anymore: How eBooks lost their shine: ‘Kindles now look clunky and unhip’
But then that’s alright with me – after all I’m clunky and unhip, too.

Fyre Fyre

I don’t even mind being clunky and unhip – because if I weren’t I might be in the Bahamas now, being angry: ‘Rich kids of Instagram meets Hunger Games’: Guests at luxury Fyre Festival where tickets cost $12,000 ‘mugged, stranded and hungry’
Who would have seen that coming? Apparently not this dude Fyre Festival Head Billy McFarland: ‘We Were a Little Naive’ even when people who know what they were talking about saw a whole lot of warning signs: I Worked at Fyre Festival. It Was Always Going to Be a Disaster.

Game, Set, Match

I present to you: important journalism. Was Uber’s CEO really the second-best Wii Sports tennis player? (Not important per se but very amusing in either way. His uncle said so.)

Hail Robot

Just in case you wonder: Is Wall-E Satan?

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Now have a good May 1st. And maybe you get an incovenient rash if you celebrate Loyalty Day instead of International Worker’s Day today.

Toodles!