📡 A selfie on Mars. A magic number.
Welcome to the fifth Pulse!
A lot happened here at Perspective IX this week and I’ve been super busy, but that doesn’t mean I spent less time on creating this week’s issue - you’ll see! #commitment
Perspective IX is now officially on Google map and I’d really appreciate a review - hopefully 5-star, of course!
Pulse also landed on Revue’s Explore page under Tech section. It feels fantastic to get acknowledged and put next to so many amazing newsletters!
Now, let’s dive in. There’s a lot, so keep scrolling!
- Ben
📰 News
Doomsday preparation! Years of doomsday talk at Silicon Valley dinner parties has turned to action. In recent months, two 150-ton survival bunkers journeyed by land and sea from a Texas warehouse to the shores of New Zealand, where they’re buried 11 feet underground. [Bloomberg]
Obesity and infrastructure! Two researchers from the University of Washington have found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to estimate a US city’s obesity level by looking at its buildings. They are looking at satellite and Street View images from Google, instead of having to look at a city’s inhabitants. [Quartz]
Just a few days before their 2018 iPhone event, Apple experienced a very bad security day. Adware Doctor, one of App Store’s top apps, was stealing users’ browsing history and sent back to China! [TechCrunch] Add this to a dozen apps caught sending users’ location data to advertising firms without their permission; not a very good day… [TechCrunch]
🧠 Insights
How to Monitor the 10 Most Valuable Social Media Metrics
Trying to prove the value of your social media marketing? Here are the 10 most important social media metrics to monitor.
The Technium: 1,000 True Fans
To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.
And this is where PerspectiveIX and Pulse are headed - hopefully!
📊 Statistics
Credit: Recode & Pew Research
Relationship Status with Facebook: It’s Complicated!
More than a quarter of Facebook users in the US 🇺🇸 say they have deleted the app from their phones over the past year, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.
26% say they have deleted the app from their phones.
42% say they have taken a break from checking Facebook for several weeks or more.
54% say they’ve adjusted their privacy settings over the past year.
The interesting fact remains that the younger users deleted the app more often the older users. They’ve also taken more breaks from it. Whether it’s sort of a backlash to the idea that social media is a poor use of time, or Cambridge Analytica scandal and/or something else, distancing themselves from Facebook app seems to be a conscious decision.
Plastic Production and Its Fate - Credit: Our World in Data
Landfill: the Ultimate Destination
From 1950-2015 the world produced ~8.3 billion tonnes of plastics. Where did it go?
55% straight to landfill
30% still in use
8% incinerated
6-7% recycled.
Of 5.8 billion tonnes no longer in use, ~9% recycled.
However, highlights something important about recycling…
Read more here.
Reaching Snapchatters Around the Globe - Credit: Snap Inc.
Snap Across the Map
According to Snap, on average, 188 million people around the world use Snapchat on a daily basis, and these daily active Snapchatters use the app at an average of over 20 times per day.
As of August 2018, these are the number of users Snapchat can reach in different regions/countries:
93 million in the 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦
76 million in Europe (17.5m in 🇫🇷, 15.5m in 🇬🇧, 9.2m in 🇩🇪)
21 million in MENA (13.1m in 🇸🇦, 2.6m in 🇮🇶, 1.8m in 🇦🇪)
13 million in Latin America
6.5 million in 🇮🇳
6 million in 🇦🇺
Read more here.
We know where you've been this summer: the most checked-in countries on Facebook ⬇️ #socialmedia https://t.co/g2d7suuXZ5
📱 Tools & Apps
Scale: Playful color scales generator.
Kapwing: Turn a photo a cartoon drawing, using a neural network!
Oval Money: Track, Learn Save, Invest Automatically. [iOS | Android] (Use this code when signing up to earn £5: BJX71G1U)
🎮 Fun Stuff
You do, huh? https://t.co/dc56TWNtpC
Reaaaaaally?! All around it you do?
Do you talk while others speak?? Blank out? Respond to their story with your own, BETTER story? Don't be a fake listener! "Fake listening is not listening" https://t.co/pxkJvH7EsQ
Stop “fake listening” and look at Mars Curiosity’s selfie on Mars!
Mars Curiosity's 360-degree panorama - Credit: NASA
That does seem flat! Is there a ‘Flat Mars Society’ we could consult? Maybe world’s creepiest satellite can help!
The Creepiest Satellite Ever
The Russian space agency decided to turn an old space suit that has reached the end of its operational lifetime into a satellite. The result looked like an astronaut stranded in outer space.
This is not goodbye...
It’s a question!
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See you next Sunday in your inbox!