Interesting Links for 09-09-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Lottery winners do not tend to lose all of their money quickly

(tags:money lottery myths )

2. What is going on with Tumblr?

(tags:business Tumblr socialnetworking Doom )

3. Who had "electrified E coli" on their 2023 Doom Chart?

(tags:Doom bacteria electricity )

4. UK's long-lasting snow patch melts away for 10th time in 300 years

(tags:snow Scotland globalwarming )

5. Russian enthusiasm for Ukraine war falls to lowest level since invasion (38% from 52%)

(tags:Russia Ukraine war polls )

6. Edinburgh trams: North-south line, Granton to Dalkeith, could go via Western General Hospital and Orchard Brae

(tags:Edinburgh trams )

7. The Sandman Season 1 4K & Blu-ray Release Date Set

(tags:sandman TV BluRay )

8. How to use etiquette to disarm people in arguments

(tags:etiquette argument )

9. A technology startup has made startling claims for its innovative ceramic nanolayer-based storage

(tags:storage materials )

Comments

[calimac]

8) I've never heard anyone say any of these things. What people do say is "You need to calm down" or some threat to discontinue the conversation if they don't. This is guaranteed to make an angry person angrier, if what they're angry about is the other person's unwillingness to listen to them, because it says "I don't care what you're saying."

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. People mostly get angry and lash out at the angry person, which doesn't help anyone.

[simont]

I actually did have something along the lines of "are you okay?" said to me in an argument last month. I'd got annoyed with something my line manager had said, and sent a somewhat snippy email back, and his reaction to that suggested that I'd behaved not so much out of order but more out of character, to the point that he wondered if there was something wrong.

And the next day I tested positive for Covid, so apparently he was right, and my judgment – and temper – had been impaired!

[andrewducker]

I hope you're doing better now!

[simont]

Yes, thank you – fully recovered. Even the persistent followup cough seems to have gone by now, faster than it did for some people I know.

But that incident was characteristic of how Covid more generally impaired my brain. Other people have talked to me about a feeling of "brain fog" in which you know you're not thinking straight and can't concentrate. But for me, it was much more insidious: I felt as if I was on top of my game, but when I looked at any of the things I'd done afterwards, they were full of mistakes.

[andrewducker]

That's a bit scary!

I'm glad you made a full recovery.

(I can't tell the difference between "No energy or concentration because I haven't slept well in 5 years" and "I have The Sickening".)

[ninetydegrees]

8 The 'are you ok' works well online, and mentioning one's behavior calmly and politely rather than feeding the troll by engaging in debate sometimes works too. The other person gives up or switches conversation and forgets what they were talking about in the first place. This is clearly derailing the conversation and using the tone argument, which are tactics often used by racists and the likes, but also works against them. Captain Awkward also has lots of sentences you can use to confuse people and/or point out awful behavior and redirect conversations, which is kind of a similar strategy.

[andrewducker]

I think it also strongly implies that if someone *was* okay then they wouldn't be asking that kind of question or saying that kind of thing. Which is a useful kind of social pressure.

[ninetydegrees]

Exactly. It's a bit like the 'not cool, bro' but maybe subtler :)

[movingfinger]

2. A. I'd be sad to see Tumblr crumble. It's frustrating that people don't buy ad-free. I don't think the reason for that is that a significant percentage of Tumblr users are too young to have their own credit cards, either, it's more a misplaced sense of ownership and importance. If the server isn't in your living room and all the domains in your name, you don't own the website.

B. Everything is worse with libertarians and VCs. Everything.

3. Is Nintendo running evolution now? Are we going to get fire-breathing bacteria, ice-spraying bacteria, and water-squirting bacteria too?

[andrewducker]

Also, blocks you can stomp on to make you giant. And tanuki suits for all!