Interesting Links for 24-01-2023

[andrewducker]

1. 2,500 pieces, measuring 30 metres and weighing 25 tonnes - This medieval sessel is world's largest 3D puzzle

(tags:history ship )

2. 7 steps to victory in Ukraine

(tags:ukraine russia war )

3. How the "smeariness" of CRT TVs made pixel art look so much better

(tags:Technology games video tv displays )

4. Brainfarts, a collection

(tags:brain language oops funny mistakes )

5. Dictionary biz finally infiltrates gaming as Merriam-Webster buys Quordle

(tags:dictionary words games )

6. These vaccine side effects look harrowing

(tags:vaccine funny dancing video )

7. Disfrustrating puzzles

(tags:funny xkcd )

8. Netflix's New Chapter - how did it get here and what does it need to do next?

(tags:streaming TV Netflix business )

9. Pet fish spend cash and expose Nintendo Switch owner's credit card during Pokemon live stream

(tags:Nintendo fish viaPatrickHadfield weird )

10. Why men are more likely to aggressively avoid tax than women

(tags:psychology tax gender )

11. New Scottish fox hunting bill to pass 20 years after ban

(tags:foxes scotland law )

12. Russia's energy blackmail fails as Europe switches to LNG and prices fall to pre-war levels

(tags:russia gas electricity europe economy )

13. Germany is failing Ukraine, leaving Nato allies no choice but to sideline it

(tags:germany ukraine war russia )

14. Chronic UTI patients are waiting up to 12 years for a diagnosis from the NHS

(tags:nhs urination disease uk OhForFucksSake )

15. Edinburgh Jenners fire: Shops and roads still closed after Princes Street fire, including M&S and TK Maxx

(tags:edinburgh fire shops )

Comments

[simont]

#3: I don't disagree that pixel art can look better with the blur and was probably at least somewhat designed with that in mind, but I always suspect that another factor causing 8- and 16-bit era videogames to look better in our memories than on emulators is simply that our imagination was accustomed to doing more of the work.

A Spectrum game that I particularly remember for this was Way of the Tiger, in which your ninja character starts the game walking through a desert fighting assorted enemies that turn up and attack you for no particular reason. One such enemy is a giant rock troll creature, which you can tell is coming because its footsteps shake the landscape before it even appears on screen.

In my memory, the footsteps echoed ominously and the desert shook convincingly on screen. Replaying it in FUSE the other year, I was surprised to discover that each footstep is a short burst of white noise at constant volume, and the screen jerks up and down just once.

I don't think CRT blur can explain that. My explanation is that my imagination met the game developers half way, by obligingly picturing the scene they were trying to evoke, filling in the gaps from what they'd actually been able to depict. But these days I'm used to a lot more of the audiovisual work being done for me by the game developers, because these days they can and do – and my imagination is no longer used to having to do that much work.

(At least, not in that particular context. I suppose a case of this that still happens today is reading books, because the graphics and sound in that context are no better now than in the 80s, so my imagination is just as accustomed to making its own mental images and sound effects!)

[andrewducker]

I have long thought that games used to be more the province of people whose imaginations were better at extrapolating - so that they could look at a few pixels (or in the case of rogue-likes, some ASCII) and see a world of adventure. Whereas nowadays it's so much easier for more people to get into them because they look like the thing the artist wants them to, with much less imagination needed.

Some variant of this: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/imagination

[mtbc]

(4) made me laugh atypically much.

[andrewducker]

Me too!

[channelpenguin]

Oddly, generally didn't tickle my funnybone.

[mtbc]

There's probably much interesting stuff in how humour varies. For instance, some semi-comedic story that we read in GCSE English Literature highly amused me at points while falling mostly flat among my peers. Whereas, say, in watching Mark Kermode's movie reviews, he loves the Minions stuff, which falls flat for me.

[channelpenguin]

Oh definitely.

I know I don't find any humour based on embarrassment or cruelty at all funny.

#2

[agoodwinsmith]

Wait - Putin *hasn't* been personally sanctioned? What?

Also - I agree that success in Ukraine will be dependent on having a plan and working the plan. Having thoughts and prayers and making a wish isn't gonna work.

13.

[trailer_spot]

Hopefully, most of the damage has been averted. Why Scholz didn't use the weeks before the scheduled Ramstein meeting last week to explain to his citizens why it's necessary to send tanks, I have no idea. The repeated pattern when it comes to German military support for Ukraine would be laughable if the situation weren't so serious.
Then again, while it looks like it will take many months until it will happen, if Ukraine now also gets (logistically challenging) US tanks, then the episode may have a bright side.

Re: 13.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I'm glad that Germany has finally come around. And this should also unlock the Polish tanks, and anyone else wanting to send them. Hopefully this will have a really positive effect on Ukraine kicking out the Russians.

Re: 13.

[hairyears]

Germany 'coming round' is an extremely complex process: their political system is constructed in a way that entrains government by consensus and it takes a year or more to overcome the safeguards against (say) the threat of deadlock and paralysis due to 'blocking' by an extremist minority.

That's the easy part.

Some of the pacifist arguments against sending tanks are sincere, and there is a genuine risk of escalating the conflict.

Some of those arguments, and some of the behind-the-scenes politics originates in commercial relationships with Russia and its de facto satellite states.

Some of it is more sinister Russian influence.