Interesting Links for 08-03-2018

[andrewducker]

The DNA errors which meant that Germany's most dangerous woman never existed

(tags: dna genetics crime fail germany )

Japan: inventing the science fictional future you probably don't want to live in

(tags: thefuture EpicWTF technology japan )

I think this might be the stupidest fashion thing I have ever encountered

I mean, some fashion looks much sillier than this. But I've not seen anyone take anything as minimal and try to make it a fashion statement
(tags: fashion hair )

I'm fairly sure 90% of people watch movies like this, and frankly I wish I was better at it.

(tags: movies )

The male glance: how we approach male vs. female work is ruining our ability to see good art.

(tags: art gender society patriarchy viaFanf fiction )

Warm showers and ball exercises may help women during childbirth

(tags: childbirth )

31 Photos That, Despite Their Best Efforts, Are Not Of Penises

It is possible that I am twelve
(tags: penis photos )

Best-selling introductory psychology books give a misleading view of intelligence

(tags: Intelligence psychology )

US Holocaust Museum Revokes Award to Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi

(tags: genocide OhForFucksSake )

"Into the Breach"’s interface was a nightmare to make and the key to its greatness as a game

(tags: games design ux ui )

Comments

[mountainkiss]

I'd be careful about the intelligence test thing. I think the point about evidence is more than fair, but I'd be reluctant to rely on 1997 evidence that a construct isn't culturally biased. I don't think that in 1997 we had very much ability to understand and hence measure cultural bias, and we now have more, albeit that all of this discourse is still a work in progress. So I think we're a way away from coming down on one side or the other, and there's a risk of playing for the exclusion team if you come down firmly on the g side now. (Fine if that's the team you want to play for, but make it a choice.)

[calimac]

I'm equally dubious. If a whole raft of "the most eminent psychologists alive" say one thing, and some article the authors have designated as "reflect[ing] consensus in the field" says a contradictory thing, I would not be quick to jump to a conclusion as to which side was right.

Not to mention that it can't be much of a firm consensus if all those eminent people disagree with it, can it?

[cmcmck]

Sigh :o(

It's called 'putting your hair out of the way'

Some of us with longer hair do it pretty much every day.

[njj4]

I'm fairly sure 90% of people watch movies like this, and frankly I wish I was better at it.
I certainly do this as well. I've got a friend who has an MA in Film Studies who always has a complicated opinion about any film she sees (although in the case of Underworld it was "but it's rubbish, it's just two hours of goths flouncing around and slamming doors", to which I replied "yes, and that's why it rocked"). But I mostly come out of a film thinking "yeah, I enjoyed that". Sometimes I enjoy it because I spotted some interesting motifs, references or themes in the film, but usually it's just because there was a good story, some interesting characters, or maybe just some stuff exploding in an entertaining way.

I had the same problem with GCSE English Literature at school. The teacher would say "and what is the author telling us in this story?" and I couldn't get past "the author is telling us that these characters did these things, and I don't know what else you want from me". I've gradually come to understand it more over the years, but I still wish the teachers had made more of an effort to explain it to me, rather than just writing things like "please stop reading science fiction" on my end of term report. Lots of people had the analogous experience with maths, which has always just made sense to me, but which many other people find impossibly baffling.

[zotz]

On the other hand, there's a clear difference between films I saw ten or twenty years ago that I enjoyed reasonably but can't now remember the name of, and films I saw around the same time that shocked me into a stunned silence and that I still have awestruck conversations about with the few friends who've seen them.

I think I saw Lost in Space and Hana-Bi around the same time and maybe even in the same cinema, but it's appallingly misleading even to speak of them in the same sentence.

Music is much the same. People's relationship to music differs incredibly. I've a friend who's been around since the eighties and has been to clubs lots who recently asked me if what she'd been dancing to was one song or two. I was a bit surprised but said it was two. She asked how I knew and I said that it was because the first half was Blue Monday and the second half had been something else.

[andrewducker]

I failed GCSE English twice, and I blame it entirely on teachers who couldn't explain what it was they _wanted_.

Stupidest fashion thing ever is in fact quite stupid

[marahmarie]

Not to mention it puts me 40+ years ahead of my time (assuming it's never been in fashion before) because I've been doing it since I was born approximately forever. I mean, ears: they stick out just so. Are good for holding things. And my hair's got just one trajectory, and that's straight into my eyes, so...