#072: The Roundup
Naming Things
Ever since someone had the idea to put skate wheels on a board, riders have been doing tricks. Same goes for surfers. But sometimes those worlds collide: When a Surfer Lands a Skateboard Trick, Who Gets to Name It?
Inconsistencies
As languages go, English isn’t a very consistent one. Many words were imported from other languages, leading to a hodgepodge of pronunciations that you pretty much have to know, since there’s no system to it (I still remember how long it took me to know how to correctly pronounce “choir”). How would English sound if it were phonetically consistent? (YouTube)
First Program, First Bug
Ada Lovelace is often touted as the first programmer. While not strictly true (others have written simple programs before her), she was arguably the first one to write a complex program that used control flow to steer its execution, in a manner recognizable to today’s programmers. Considering that in her time, no actual computers existed, that’s quite impressive. Oh, and her program also had the first known bug, too. But what did Ada Lovelace’s program actually do?
Clean Skies
Plane engines have been getting ever more efficient over the years. Compared to how dark engine exhausts were in the 70s, todays engines are very efficient and clean. Still, they burn fuel, and produce emissions. So, just like with cars, there’s a lot of research and development going into electric planes. But as it turns out, electric planes might not really be possible just yet (YouTube), because the batteries aren’t ready.
Is Your Battery Dead Yet?
There’s a fear for everything. Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders, Xenophobia is the fear of strangers, and Nomophobia is the fear of not having your phone (“No More Phone Phobia”). And its battery is the biggest source of that anxiety: The constant stress of the battery meter.
Lies, More Lies, and Privacy Settings
When a web giant offers you settings to control what data they store about you, you’d expect they actually do what they promise to. If you tell Google not to track your location history, you’d expect it not to track your location history. As it turns out, Google still tracks you through the web if you turn off Location History. As dishonest as this is of Google (especially their claim that they’re “perfectly clear on what they’re doing”), it is the quandary of the free web services everyone uses. They want to make money somehow, and if their users turn of data tracking, they can’t monetize that users data. Google’s practices also seem to be the reason why Apple decided to part ways with Google in iOS.
Rosé-Colored Glasses
Rosé wine is very popular right now, and of course big brands are trying to take advantage: Bribes, Backdoor Deals, and Pay to Play: How Bad Rosé Took Over
📖 Weekly Longread 📚
“Visionary Argentine filmmaker Quirino Cristiani created full-length animated films between 1917 and 1931. He has since been all but forgotten”: Drawing the Shorter Straw