Curated Commons // Edition 33
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the Thirty-Third edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in.
Meet the Game Boy photographers
I love tech nostalgia stories. Meet the photographers going low-res and old school with Nintendo's 23-year-old Game Boy camera.
In dark patterns we trust
Increasingly relied upon by practically every website/app/online service, dark patterns are now everywhere. Recode has a good explainer on dark patterns.
Never underestimate Internet weirdness!
"The internet has decided that Pfizer is significantly cooler than Moderna—but why?"
(also #TIL - there exists people who are called/call themselves "TikTok scholar"!!!)
Lockdowns haven’t been great for kids’ eyes
A January study of more than 120,000 children in China found that the rate of myopia (nearsightedness, or trouble seeing things at a distance) among children ages 6 to 8 increased markedly during a home confinement period, when schools closed from January through May because of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Among 6-year-olds, the rate of myopia following lockdown was 21.5 percent; before covid-19, the highest yearly rate in that age group since 2015 was 5.7 percent.
Exoskeletons are here
They are still expensive, but fascinating new models that are coming up to help various categories of people. For instance, came across this startup to which offers one for people with knee pain.
How should electric cars sound?
Electric cars are remarkably quiet. That’s also a safety risk. What does that mean for sound engineers at automotive companies? Are we start going to see audio brand signatures? Will it end up in a world where we just trade one cacophony for another? Or will it (purely hypothetical) be a repeat of the ringtone market of sorts where drivers can pay & download for their mood of the day tune? Interesting read.
Deepfakes are coming for…satellite imagery!
When we have deepfakes of geography, what level of misinformation are we talking of what might be the impact?
Pandemic and effect on nature
The pandemic and lockdowns have been hard on all of us, no doubt. But in a world where we were out of the way, nature healed in many ways.
“Apo Island in the Philippines once depended on tourism to help its efforts to save rare local turtles. So what happened when the pandemic brought tourism to a standstill?” - https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210428-covid-19s-far-reaching-effect-on-a-turtle-sanctuary
On a related note, if you have an Apple+ subscription, do watch a short fascinating documentary called The Year Earth Changed, narrated by David Attenborough - https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-year-earth-changed/umc.cmc.3fob3t7nfhehpb3ilgynzxmnu
Old school tech, FTW
Today in stories you can’t make up - an elderly couple with dementia in an assisted living facility used military morse code training to figure out the codes to a locked door from the sounds that came when staff punched them in. And escaped!
What did the pandemic do to our immune system?
What is the collateral damage to our immune system with all of the actions that we’ve taken to steer clear of the Coronavirus? Interesting read (& interesting graphic below!)
How long can we live?
Dark headline given the times, but interesting long-read on advances in healthcare and aging.
A related very good read on how humanity gave itself an extra life between 1910 and 2020. In this time, the average human life span doubled - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/magazine/global-life-span.html
The meat world is changing
Plant-based meat sales in the US grew by 45 percent and plant-based milk sales were up 20 percent from 2019.
Why do so many companies incorporate in Delaware?
Nearly 1.5m businesses from all over the world are incorporated in Delaware, including 68% of all Fortune 500 firms. Why?
The Castaway, but IRL
The maritime industry is one wild industry. This is a fascinating read on a lone man who was left stranded on an abandoned ship on the Suez for over 4 years.
More interesting reads:
An Italian town is selling houses for 1 Euro - https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/castiglione-di-sicilia-one-euro-houses/index.html
America has a Pokemon card crisis - https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kv9a9/pokemon-cards-psa-cgc-bgs-turnaround-times
How the pentagon started taking U.F.O.s seriously - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously
The rise of the cyborg art dealers - https://news.artnet.com/market/intelligence-report-art-dealers-1956758
In the “new normal”, how will Google’s famed offices look? - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/technology/google-back-to-office-workers.html
#TIL
Cats have a precise method of walking called ‘direct registering’. Their hind paws fall inside the place of their forepaws — minimizing noise and visible tracks — while ensuring more stable footing. Amazing...Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, please do share on your social networks. My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.