Interesting Links for 22-11-2017

[andrewducker]

Sinking container ships by hacking load plan software

(tags: shipping transport security viaSwampers )

In 2017, over 80% of UK water companies still rely on “magic”

(tags: water uk wtf magic )

The good news is that 99% of websites don't record every key you press and send it to third parties...

(tags: web spying surveillance OhForFucksSake )

Labour documentary: Hang on, are the centrists the idiots?

(tags: Labour OhForFucksSake )

John Lasseter Taking Leave of Absence From Pixar Amid "Missteps" (Most disappointing one so far)

(tags: abuse Disney pixar )

John Lasseter's Pattern of Alleged Misconduct Detailed by Disney/Pixar Insiders

(tags: Disney Pixar abuse OhForFucksSake )

Definitely the worst advice in the world

(tags: advice awful funny )

Ketamine lifts rodents' mood only if administered by male researchers

(tags: gender pheremones mice psychology ketamine )

The consultation is up for the Picardy Place re-design

(tags: edinburgh transport design trams )

How can it be faster to send an IP packet to Europe than to send a pixel to the screen?

(tags: Technology speed computers )

The bacteria in your gut might affect your vulnerability to PTSD

(tags: ptsd inflammation microbiome )

Facebook (Still) Letting Housing Advertisers Exclude Based On Race

(tags: racism Facebook advertising )

Bizzumbaw and heidbummers: why Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is better in Scots

(tags: harrypotter Scotland language )

Police tweet open 'letter' to domestic abuse victim

(tags: scotland abuse police twitter )

How many colours were there in a medieval rainbow?

(tags: colour rainbow history )

Comments

[momentsmusicaux]

I would urge anyone in Edinburgh to fill in that survey about Picardy Place, as the most recent plans for it I saw look like some sort of monstrous 1970s concrete roundabout, with the pedestrian area entirely surrounded by the flow of cars. Which would be a real shame, as the current pedestrian bit that's to one side of the roundabout is reasonably nice.

[momentsmusicaux]

Something on this from Sustrans: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/news/update-picardy-place-our-position

Rainbows

[danieldwilliam]

I am interested (in a vague way) about the link between the language we have and use for colours and our perception of colours.

Before there was a word for orange did the difference between red and orange matter to us and if, instead of adopting a new word for the bits of the spectrum between red and yellow you just started calling them yellow instead of read would our perception change.

And is there a link between the language of colour and differences in numbers of types of cones?

Re: Rainbows

[andrewducker]

Oooh, there's a bunch of fascinating research into this. This is quite a good article:
https://www.wired.com/story/what-you-call-a-color-depends-on-how-you-use-it/

And this video is a really good overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMqZR3pqMjg

And historically there's been lots of variance across cultures. I was fairly sure that "Wine-coloured sea" was one of the things that pops up as a starting point for discussion:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hoffman_01_13/

And sometimes even in humorous verse:
http://latining.tumblr.com/post/162233566949/marzipanandminutiae-feels-for-the-fictional

I find our varying different views on the world, and the fact that we can never really tell what others see when they look at the same thing, a true marvel.

[skington]

I'd like someone to answer two questions for me, both of them related. This is about the Harry Potter in Scots article.

The first one is straightforward: why is it, again, that we dislike AMP? I believe it's because it's Google's attempt to take traffic away from traditional websites (and therefore steal their advertising revenue), but I can't be sure.

The second one is more headscratching: why does the Guardian's AMP website look terrible? It uses the wrong font, and it's tiny in comparison to the proper desktop site. (You can compare on the device of your choice by removing the amp. prefix in the URL.)

[andrewducker]

I think some people object to it because you can't go easily from one article by the original creators to another one. It's a bit too walled gardeny for them.

But I don't know why it looks so different. (Doesn't looks terrible on my machine. But it does have a different font. No idea what that's about).

Why they can't just...ship less javascript, I don't know. Because that would make things a lot smoother for everyone without having to use AMP.

[skington]

Weirdly, if you click "load comments", the page ends up looking like the proper desktop version. And of course this is one of the reasons the AMP version loads quicker: it does less, but sometimes those are things you wanted.

[birguslatro]

"The good news is that 99% of websites don't record every key you press and send it to third parties..."

That's probably a bit optimistic, in that they only looked for sites that could be detected using specific replay software. Sites using their own replay software were probably not detected. Facebook, according to Ghostery, is only using two trackers, and while FB may not record key presses, you can bet they're recording way more than just what those two trackers do.