andrewducker | Interesting Links for 14-11-2023

andrewducker

1. Scientists perplexed to find each nostril works separately to sense world: (tags:smell noses )
2. If the UK government wants parents to work then wraparound care needs to be fixed: (tags:parents work childcare uk )
3. Nearly Everyone With Mild Cognitive Impairment Goes Undiagnosed: (tags:brains neuroscience fail )
4. 'Coyote vs. Acme' Shelved by Warner Bros, Taking $30M Tax Writeoff: (tags:movies business OhForFucksSake )
5. US election results show rights still bewilderingly popular: (tags:rights women USA politics funny )
6. Dutch elections: is a new version of PR on the way?: (tags:Netherlands proportional_representation )
7. When Israel-Palestine Peace Was Within Reach: (tags:Israel Palestine history )
8. What words were added to the dictionary the year you were born? (Gaia, Bipolar Disorder, and Woke for me): (tags:words history dictionary )
9. What's Biden's record on trans rights?: (tags:transgender politics USA democrats )
10. "I've Been To Over 20 Homeschool Conferences. The Things I've Witnessed At Them Shocked Me.": (tags:school Education children politics usa )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

nancylebov

1. It makes sense-- how else can you tell where a smell is coming from?

There may be more differences than that. I await further research.

People aren't as symmetrical as they look.

From:

calimac

"how else can you tell where a smell is coming from?"

You can?

All I can tell is, there's a smell. The only ways to deduce where it comes from are logic ("It smells like a wet diaper. There's a toddler nearby. Therefore ...") or by moving around to determine if the smell gets stronger or weaker.

From:

nancylebov

I think so-- I get a direction when I smell a restaurant. I don't *think* it's just feeling the wind.

From:

cmcmck

9. And meanwhile, our own government's record on trans rights?...................

From:

andrewducker

Abysmal? Appalling? Toxic?

From:

cmcmck

All of the above!

From:

calimac

8) Cognitive dissonance!

From:

andrewducker

Oooh, good one!

From:

greenwoodside

2. Yes, very much so. It's a case of economic interests and social justice pointing in the same direction. (Couldn't read the article because of the paywall, but the concept is something I've been behind since adulthood.)

8. A few nice things including bhangra, emoticon, steampunk and tatsoi.

Edited Date: 2023-11-14 03:04 pm (UTC)

From:

andrewducker

2) Totally agree. But none of the parties are will to talk about how they want it to work. If they were to come out and say "Look, if you earn less than £2k per month after tax then frankly it's not economically viable to pay someone else to look after your kids." then people would know where they stand, and we could have a discussion about what makes sense. But the total fear of pissing off even 1 person means that they don't say anything, and tinker around the edges in pointless ways.

From:

greenwoodside

Yes, it's caught in the same bind as social care reform. And so much else. Saying that to invest in people you will have to spend more money is anathema to modern politicians.

From:

mountainkiss

OCTOTHORPE

(which really should not be allowed to be a word, because it's half Latin and half Viking, but still.)

From:

andrewducker

I'm far too tired to think of one now, but assume that I just made a hilarious joke involving the word "television" right here.

From:

calimac

"Television? The word is half Greek and half Latin. No good can come of such a device."

- C.P. Scott, allegedly (but probably not)

(In Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love, A.E. Housman makes a similar objection to the word 'homosexual'.)

From:

andrewducker

That's the kind of thing I was thinking of!

From:

simont

Polyamory is the other one I usually hear that complaint about. "Dammit, it should be either multiamory or polyphilia."

From:

mountainkiss

Also I read (5) as "US election results show right still bewilderingly popular".

From:

andrewducker

Thankfully not!

From:

mountainkiss

Well, I don’t know.

From:

conuly

Any amount of popularity for them is bewildering.

From:

andrewducker

Some people believe truly awful things.

From:

mountainkiss

Clickbait headline callout on the last

From:

mountainkiss

(because last time this came up, you said you wished you'd caught it)

From:

andrewducker

I appreciate it. And you are right.

From:

channelpenguin

hehe, no phishing!

From:

channelpenguin

homeschooling is not allowed in Germany. This might not be 100% good in some people's eyes, but still...

From:

andrewducker

I'm with Germany.

From:

mountainkiss

Intrigued that “woke” is that old.

From:

wildeabandon

I had the opposite reaction. Presumably it evolved from dropping the 'a' from awoke at some point, but I would have guessed centuries ago rather than decades.

From:

mountainkiss

Ah, sorry, not clear. In its original form I think it’s Anglo-Saxon. I was assuming - perhaps entirely wrongly - that this meant with the sense that it has now.

From:

andrewducker

In the modern sense, first recorded usage was in 1938.

But it was AAVE, and didn't leave black circles and hit the mainstream until decades later as far as I can see

From:

mountainkiss

Thank you!

From:

andrewducker

See this https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188543449/what-does-the-word-woke-really-mean-and-where-does-it-come-from

But it was clearly in use before then to some extent, as it sounds like he expected the usage to be understood.

Edit: the Wikipedia article section on origins is also fascinating:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke?wprov=sfla1

Edited Date: 2023-11-14 09:46 pm (UTC)

From:

andrewducker

In the sense of "past tense of wake" I assume it does go back centuries.

In the sense of "be aware of injustice" it seems to date back to 1938.

From:

wildeabandon

Ah, that makes more sense, thank you. I am, obviously, familiar with the "aware of injustice" sense, but it's not the one that comes to mind when I hear the word out of context, so it didn't occur to me.