Dream On, Football.
I still dream of playing football.
That might surprise you, coming from someone who plays it for a living.
But it’s true.
I still dream of playing with my friends.
Playing until sunset. Until dinner.
Playing just because it was a game, long before it could become a career.
I have followed this dream for as long as I can remember.
Once again it has led me to one of the biggest changes in my life.
Now, I find myself surrounded by innovators who dream of the same things I do.
Of bringing foot as close as possible to ball.
Of bringing the people as close as possible to the game.
Of bringing the world as close as possible to play.
I guess that’s the thing about dreams that refuse to change.
They’re usually the ones that change everything.
Dream On.
In November 2017, Strava released its Global Heatmap, a stunning data visualization built from over a billion activities and trillions of GPS points logged by runners, cyclists, hikers, and other users worldwide.
It's goal was to reveal global patterns of physical activity, from city trails to rural paths, using what Strava called the largest dataset of its kind.
At first glance, it was beautiful major cities like London, New York, and Paris lit up like constellations of human movement. But then a student noticed something else.
Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000), a 20-year-old international security student in Australia, wasn’t looking for beautiful maps. When he zoomed in on conflict zones like Syria, Afghanistan, and Djibouti, he saw bright, geometric shapes in the wilderness instead of dark emptiness.
Where others saw desert, Ruser saw patterns: perfect rectangles outlining forward operating bases, circles and regular paths where no public running trails should exist, and routes around installations invisible on satellite imagery but clear in activity footprints.
The reason was simple: soldiers and contractors stationed overseas were using fitness trackers connected to Strava by default to log their exercise.
These workouts were public unless users explicitly changed privacy settings. When dozens or hundreds of service members ran the same routes daily on base, those paths appeared as bright lines on the global map.
The map didn’t attach names to data, and Strava said it used anonymized and aggregated information. Still, the patterns were unmistakable: military base perimeters, internal road networks, and personnel movement were visible and sometimes clearly traceable.
The discovery sparked a huge outcry across the OSINT and defense communities. Analysts quickly realized the map could reveal the actual locations of overseas bases, the most frequently used buildings and areas within them, patrol routes, likely supply lines, and habitual movement patterns.
The U.S. military acknowledged the problem, reviewed its privacy and tech policies, and urged personnel to limit public sharing of location data.
In response, Strava improved privacy settings, made opting out clearer, limited detail for non-registered users, and altered how low-activity areas appeared on the map.
Credit:
Discovery & analysis — @Nrg8000
Source video: @nytimes investigation breakdown
La polarización hace años que está presente, también, en el diseño. Es esto o diseños genéricos sin alma.
Se nos mueren los simbolismos para que la gente no tenga que hacer ni el mínimo esfuerzo de entendimiento y reflexión.
Cambiar la hora dos veces al año ya no tiene sentido.
Apenas ayuda a ahorrar energía y tiene un impacto negativo en la salud y en la vida de la gente.
Por eso, hoy el Gobierno de España propondrá a la UE acabar con el cambio de hora estacional en el Consejo de Energía y pedirá que se ponga en marcha el mecanismo de revisión competente.
Lo de que LaLiga ponga en las retransmisiones ‘Compromiso por la paz’ mientras los equipos protestan por el partido que se han llevado a Miami sin preguntar a nadie es de traca absoluta.