Interesting Links for 23-10-2017

[andrewducker]

Why can’t we cure the common cold? (money)

(tags: disease virus research history )

Tarantino on Weinstein: 'I Knew Enough to Do More Than I Did'

(tags: QuentinTarantino abuse hollywood )

Video stores were better for old movies than Netflix (if you lived near a good one)

(tags: movies netflix )

What's the weirdest thing your brain has ever done on autopilot

Some of these made me giggle a _lot_
(tags: funny brain )

Pratchett! vs Sherlock!

(tags: SherlockHolmes terrypratchett )

When your parents don't even teach you the language properly

(tags: language funny )

Sense of perspective - awesome photos from unusual angles

(tags: photos photography )

Reading classic Science Fiction as a woman

(tags: women scifi )

How Did They Get That Shot? (A collection of gorgeous photographs that aren't all that they seem)

(tags: photography )

How that Theresa May photo was taken

(tags: photos viaNWhyte )

You’ll never see a more touching film about a 72-year-old alien experiencer

(tags: aliens movie documentary )

More people died from Tory austerity in winter 2015 than in the 'Reign of Terror' of the French Revolution.

(tags: austerity death uk )

Fruit juice can damage your liver

(tags: fructose fruit liver health )

A map of the former surface of the Earth, now residing in the mantle

(tags: earth maps )

The website helping British Muslims find a second wife

(tags: marriage Islam polygamy UK web )

London's £10 pollution-charge comes into effect in fight against toxic car fumes

(tags: cars pollution london )

"The mechanics of history" as performed at The Pantheon

(tags: art video history ViaDrCross )

Comments

[calimac]

This is off the topic of the article, but no, science fiction was never about hope and wonder. It's always been dark and dystopian. I've rebutted a rosy view of old SF before.

The trick shot I don't get is of the woman floating. OK, so she's actually resting on stuff. It must have been photoshopped. But how did they get the patterns on the walls and the windowsills to replicate themselves in the parts that aren't visible in the original photo? That's what I don't understand about how photoshopping works.

Picture of Mrs May all alone reminds me of how photographers once worked overtime to get photos in which Charles and Diana happened to be looking in different directions, and used that as proof that their marriage was in trouble. It was, but the photos weren't evidence.

[coth]

That post about women and sf is rather sad, for many reasons.

[bugshaw]

I brought a replacement bottle of shampoo into the shower as I knew the current bottle was on its way out.

I washed my hair, conditioned it, started shampooing it again, swore gently as I discovered that my autopilot rule is "You are not finished with your hair until you have used all the bottles," and had to condition it again.

And dozens of times I have used the wrong one of {key, travelcard, credit card, ID pass} to try to {open front door, get into work, get on a train, pay for something}.

Reading classic SF as a woman

[anef]

As a younger reader I don't think I was as perceptive as the commenter above. Or maybe it was that 3/4 of the books that I read growing up were all about the boys, and I was just happy to identify with the protagonist without questioning too much. I did have an enduring love for Le Guin, Sylvia Engdahl and Andre Norton, although their protagonists were often male, but perhaps they were more realistic in their portrayal of female characters.

But when I moved over to the adult library (probably about age 12?) I more or less stopped reading SF and read historical novels, detective stories and romances until about age 16 when I picked up a Zelazny (and fell in love with the genre again). I do wonder whether this was a subconscious reaction to the way female characters were portrayed by male SF writers. And after that I read a huge number of SF short stories, but not many classic SF novels written by men. So I guess I have a huge gap in my SF reading. Ah well.