Posts with Recent Comments
Adolescence, and toxic masculinity
The Guardian: “Jamie has fallen under the spell of misogynistic influencers and suffered cyber-bullying for being an “incel”. His parents admit that he would shut himself in his bedroom and be on his computer long into the night. They assumed he was safe but he was secretly being radicalised. His story highlights the corrosive impact of social media on impressionable minds and has resonated profoundly with audiences. Parents of teenagers have been watching rapt, heartbroken and horrified in equal measure – with the show clocking up an astonishing 24.3m views in its first four days of release, four times more than the number two show. It tops the Netflix ratings in 71 countries, ranging from Chile to Vietnam.” [Also on FanFare] [more inside]
And so it begins
New Volcanic Eruption at Kilauea, Hawaii
Live view of the eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu, from the northwest rim of the caldera, looking east [V1cam] [more inside]
What Even Is a Mental Image?
The best way I can express what happens subjectively when I try to project a shape onto an empty canvas is "halos of attention." I don't see anything, in any common sense of the word—there are no contours, no filling, no colors, or connected patterns in my field of view—but I know that certain parts of the canvas are more important than others at any given time, and that can feel similar to seeing. It's as if those regions of the canvas are more "active," more alive than the others. from An Aphantasic's Observations on the Imagination of Shapes [Aether Mug]
A reliable method of discovering the music of past eras
The Most Iconic Electronic Music Sample of Every Year (1990–2024) and The Most Iconic Hip-Hop Sample of Every Year (1973–2023) [Open Culture]
Rocky to host Olympics rowing as expert promises crocs won't eat much
Rocky to host Olympics rowing as expert promises crocs won't eat much. There are some concerns about holding the Olympic Rowing and Paralympic Rowing events in a river that is known to regularly have 4 metre [13 feet] Salt Water Crocodiles. Male Salt Water Crocodiles can grow up to a weight of 1000 kilograms to 1500 kilograms (2200 – 3300 pounds).
Nirvanna The Band The Show (The Movie?) The Post
Start here, because everyone knows about the Wii Shopping Channel, and everyone loves to shop on it every Wednesday. [more inside]
Well sometimes I go out by myself
Alone and against the odds, one dachshund survives 16 months in the wild. Valerie, a miniature dachshund weighing in under 4kg slipped the leash to go rogue on Kangaroo Island. Now she survives as a force of nature, a maverick, possibly an eater of other animal's poo.
That's a lot of sites
While it's self-proclaimed, it's easy to believe that this is the largest collection of links to free sites on the internet.
There goes the voting
Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship Trump’s executive order on elections is far-reaching. But will it actually stick?
He wants to require voters to show proof that they are U.S. citizens before they can register for federal elections, count only mail or absentee ballots received by Election Day, set new rules for voting equipment and prohibit non-U.S. citizens from being able to donate in certain elections. [more inside]
"walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed"
Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal In a surreal leak, Trump officials—including Hegseth, Waltz, Gabbard, and Vance—shared real-time details of Yemen airstrikes in a Signal chat... that accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor. Now the full messages are out, revealing how casually these high-level figures discussed bombing schedules, target confirmations, and civilian death tolls—like it was just another group thread. It's a disturbing look at how recklessly power is wielded behind the scenes.
The prehistory of QWERTY and that myth debunked
Most of us have heard how the QWERTY keyboard layout was devised to slow down typists so that early typewriters didn't jam if the typist was too fast. A Japanese paper exploring the evolution of the modern keyboard argues that this was not the case. The original use was in telegraphy and is nonsensical that a Morse receiver should be slowed down so as to be less able to keep up with the sender. [more inside]
We deserve it all
Full Remarks: AOC in Tempe, Arizona - "I am here to remind you of a simple fact. In spite of what Trump wants you to believe, we are not powerless in this moment."
The Squares on the Bus go Round and Round
A squircle is not a square or a circle. And definitely not a rounded square. Squircles have been used as traffic circles and roundabouts — most notably by Dutch polymath Piet Hein to help decongest the city of Stockholm after the Second World War. A squircular plate can hold more food than a circular one of the same horizontal dimensions, but eliminates the sharp edges of an otherwise optimal square. Despite the cute name, finding the mathematical implementation is kinda tricky.
Two Hundred Fifty Things An Architect Should Know
I like this advice to architects e.g.
- 23. How to turn a corner.
- 24. How to design a corner.
- 25. How to sit in a corner.
What ceasefire?
Hamas rejects Israel's request to extend phase 1 of the ceasefire. Israeli's military is told to prepare to defend a Druze community outside Syria's capital. Israeli troops "staying indefinitely" in Lebanon border buffer zone, defence minister says. Saudi Arabia says Israel seeking to "destabilize" Syria with airstrikes. Turkiye highlights Israel's international law violations in UN court's filing on Palestine.
The US government approves $3 billion arms sale to Israel. [more inside]
Dissolving Certainties
To better understand "the riddles and luminosity of life," Paul Hawken chose to look at the flow of life through the lens of carbon, and the result is a a beautiful, hopeful, and inspiring merger of varying forms of knowledge that provides a welcome bit of relief from "the labyrinth of anxiety, ignorance, and fear the world bequeaths." [more inside]
Lectio bible design blog
You like design blogs? You like the word of God? (Allegedly.) Have I got something for you.
an introduction to your connectome
The Brain Mappers (youtube, 30 mins) tells the fascinating story of the growing field of connectomics: The study of how your neurons all fit together to make that big juicy brain of yours, from the map of C. elegans, carefully traced by hand, to using big data to diagram the brains of fruit flies and mice. (found on Kristen M Harris' absolutely amazing SynapseWeb site)