Interesting Links for 25-12-2018

[andrewducker]

Robotic tiles for VR movement

(tags: VirtualReality robots viaSwampers )

Have You Played… Windows Solitaire?

(tags: games history windows )

You are only conscious when your unconscious mind is wrong.

(tags: consciousness unconscious psychology )

British pet shops to be banned from selling puppies and kittens

(tags: UK dogs cats )

DOOMBA turns Roomba wanderings into Doom maps

(tags: technology doom hoover )

New UK homes crumbling due to weak mortar

(tags: UK housing construction OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[calimac]

Yes, I've played Windows Solitaire. It's still just about the only computer game I play, except for Minesweeper and Tetris - once I re-found the legacy version of Solitaire, which does not turn the cards over for you. (If the computer is playing the game for you, what's the point?) I prefer the computer version to solitaire with a deck of physical cards, because I don't have to shuffle the cards, which I'm physically incapable of.

Oh, Freud visited America? I did not know that.

"Defra"? When did these wacky acronyms take over British government? The ones I find particularly creepy are the ones for "Office of ..." like "Ofcom", which sound like Handmaid's Tale characters.

[andrewducker]

DEFRA is 17 years old. Took over from MAFF and DETR, the former of which dates from 1889.

[calimac]

I'm not asking about the agencies, which I could have looked up myself. I'm asking about the acronyms. I never read them until a relatively recent date, despite much reading about UK government and politics. Now they're all over. When did they take over, and why?

[andrewducker]

DEFRA is how I've generally heard DEFRA referred to. As far as I know the UK has always been very acronym-happy.

[calimac]

No, I don't think they're that old. I checked Google's Ngram reader, and found that Oftel, Ofcom's predecessor, though established in 1984, received a giant bump in the acronym's use about 1994.

As for MAFF, though it received the full form of that name in 1955, it was basically never called by the acronym MAFF until the 1970s.

[matgb]

The ones I find particularly creepy are the ones for "Office of ..." like "Ofcom", which sound like Handmaid's Tale characters.

My A level teacher made that point when I studied it aged 17

I'm 44. We still call the annual test for roadworthiness the MOT despite the ministry of transport having ceased to be decades ago. Acronyms have been standard since way before I was born

[armiphlage]

"New UK homes crumbling due to weak mortar" - just a coincidence that they left out the most expensive ingredient, and put in more of the cheapest ingredient (after water).

Consciousness

[birguslatro]

"You are only conscious when your unconscious mind is wrong."

Which explains why we can't tickle ourselves!

This is an explanation of the unconscious that makes sense to me. Others haven't, or just seem very vague. Consciousness is still a mystery (to me) though...