Issue 001: The sound of snakes in space

Welcome to the first edition of ‘Uncovering Weird.’ Our every-other-weekly peek into the peculiar musings, tangents and scroll-stopping curiosities that sparked conversations over lunch, prompted mental (and sometimes physical) note-taking or simply had us saying “Wow, weird” aloud.?

Speaking of vocal expression, our very own Isak Landaboure Lengholm, in collaboration with his artistic collective, The Lazy Data Research (TLDR) Institute, has turned boring legalities into bedtime stories. With a project called "Legal Lullabies," they offer a 51-minute audio descent into Instagram's terms of service that doesn't just send you to sleep – it questions our collective digital slumber. It's so subversive it crashed its own web server with traffic. Listen at www.zzzuckerberg.com or read the Vice article here.?

Next up, a recent lunchtime discussion prompted two profound questions: "Do snakes hunt in groups?" And if so, "How on earth do they divide prey, given they have no arms and rely solely on teeth and a swallow-it-whole strategy?" We found the answers here. And if, like us, this sent you on a tangent into animal dentistry, another fun (or fang) fact: fruit bats, one of the few herbivorous animals with fangs, fall prey to snakes, who also have fangs. Chew on that irony.

If the above got you a bit rattled, here’s a potential antidote: the sound of a marigold. This comes from ‘Modern Biology,’ the TikTok sensation, biologist and artist Tarun Nayar, performing this month in Stockholm. On a similar note, we’ve been talking about the science of sound lately, specifically the power of sonic identity in branding. From catchy jingles to its essential role on TikTok, sound maintains a strategic stronghold in today's branding playbook. Align it with a brand's identity, and you hit an emotional and memorable high note that delivers ad effectiveness and recall. Let’s make some noise together??

Finally, a quick detour to Aliens. A recent internal Valtech RADON poll reveals that 83% of respondents believe in extraterrestrial life, 58% in their benevolence and some reflected on the complex notion that aliens probably transcend our earthly notions of morality. What’s your take??

Thanks for reading. There’s a whole lot more weird where that came from. Until next time.