The history of the numeric key pad

Trademarking Colors

The Hustle is a welcome addition to the rather dull “business and startup and business and money”-news reporting world out there; Their daily newsletter is often interesting, featuring relevant stories you don’t usually see reported on the mainstream business sites.

The recently did an in-depth look into the business of trademarking colors, something T-Mobile is famous for (in Austria, they even renamed the whole company to the color they trademarked - “Magenta”).

It’s well worth a read, going beyond T-Mobile and the obvious ethical implication of trying to own a wavelength.

Peak Maps

You know that I love maps (all kinds of maps). So, no wonder that I just had to include this little gem here:

Peak Map allows you to pick any region on a world map and have its elevation data represented as actual valleys and peaks, as if looked at from the side.

It looks a bit like the cover of “Unknown Pleasures”, which is the visualisation of pulsar radiation data that has nothing to do with mountains. 

Personally, I never could make much sense of the standard contour lines used in maps, so for me, that’s actually a quite useful tool

Some birds are so damn scary smart

If you’re with this from pretty much the beginning, you might remember that I did an issue about crows and how damn smart they are.

By the way, did you know that crows can remember and recognise human faces?

Anyhow, crows are not the only smart birds out there. 

In what appears to be an eerie timing, Cosmos magazine reports that at least three different species of australian birds of prey use fire to flush out potential prey from the underwood and bushes.

It is long known that certain australian birds keep close to the edge of bush fires, waiting for animals to run away from the fire. But in multiple incidents, birds where observed taking smoldering branches and other wood from the edges of bush fires, and taking them to areas that were not burning, trying to ignite a fire there.

“Observers report both solo and cooperative attempts, often successful, to spread wildfires intentionally via single-occasion or repeated transport of burning sticks in talons or beaks. This behaviour, often represented in sacred ceremonies, is widely known to local people in the Northern Territory.”

After usage of tools (quite a few species do that) and weapons (at least shimpanses use spears and missiles) now goes the brandishing of fire that is no longer suitable to set humans apart from the “animal kingdom”. Maybe we’re not so special after all.

Generative Poetry

What happens when you combine Open Street Map data and weather information?

OpenStreetMap Haikus. That’s what happens.

Above, you see the data from where I live now, and here’s Haiku for the place in Vienna where we used to live:

Here, you see the limitations of generative algorithms and why AI will never take over the world: La Salvia is an italian bar. There’s only wine and Prosecco flowing there, no beer. Sheesh. Computers. No idea of booze.

Danny MacAskill’s going to the Gym

A scotsman and a cycle walk into a gym. What starts as a setup for a mediocre joke turns out to be his funniest video yet. Watch it, it will brighten your day! (That bouncy ball thing looks like fun)
(And finally some cycling content again here)

What’s the best name to ask Siri to call you?

It’s - well. Yeah. I guess this is it.