Interesting Links for 06-08-2024

[andrewducker]

1. How war between Russia and the Olympics is fuelling boxing's gender row

(tags:gender sports olympics russia )

2. Watch Carbon Dioxide Move Through Earth's Atmosphere

(tags:co2 visualisation video )

3. BBC removing Huw Edwards from family and entertainment content (The Dr Who episode his voice was in will be redubbed)

(tags:bbc pedophilia drwho )

4. What Happens in a Mind That Can't 'See' Mental Images (a brief history of aphantasia)

(tags:psychology vision imagination )

5. The nature of consciousness, and how to enjoy it while you can

(tags:consciousness )

6. A brief explanation of why the Japanese currency markets are causing issues right now

(tags:economics investing Doom video )

7. Dinosaurs Did Not Trudge Through Thick Rainforests

(tags:trees dinosaurs )

8. OpenAI has the tech to watermark ChatGPT text—it just won't release it

(tags:ai )

9. The significance of Bluesky and decentralized social media

(tags:socialmedia decentralisation )

10. Chrome is about to make it harder to block ads. I recommend switching to Firefox.

(tags:advertising chrome web OhForFucksSake )

11. Three different approaches to the problem of disposable plastic

(tags:plastic environment waste )

Comments

[dewline]

1. I'm not surprised that Putinists are pushing this cruelty and nonsense and suckering the relevant agencies.

3. The BBC is going to need to find someone who was on the news payroll at the time to fill in for Edwards on the Doctor Who voice-over, right?

10. Good thing I'm already using Firefox for my personal browsing. My current day job requires it for using vendor-ware that they've bought licenses for, however.

[mountainkiss]

Are you aphantasic, Andy?

[andrewducker]

Yup!

(I thought I'd mentioned that a few times before, but possibly not.)

I'm about a 4 on the chart, if I really work at it. Mostly a 5.

[mountainkiss]

I am about the same.

[andrewducker]

Brains really are fascinating things.

And it's almost more fascinating how much people can assume that their experience is the normal one, and everyone else is experiencing the universe similarly to them.

[mountainkiss]

I find this a great way to bring to life that brains work differently in a non-judgmental way.

[andrewducker]

I've seen people refuse to believe it. Or then believe all sorts of things as a follow-on which aren't true.

The other day I saw someone assume that people without a visual imagination wouldn't enjoy reading.

(I have seen people who didn't like movie adaptations because it didn't look like they imagined, which isn't a problem for me 99% of the time. And I've seen people who don't like comics because they prefer to imagine things themselves.)

[mountainkiss]

I’ve usually found this works but I am sure nothing does always.

[andrewducker]

Oh, I'm sure it does most of the time. I'm just fascinated by how much people leap to conclusions about things when they first encounter them.

[cmcmck]

I'm colour music synaesthetic as I have mentioned and people will say 'isn't that awful?'

No, it isn't.

[andrewducker]

Why would it be awful????

[cmcmck]

I suppose people find things which are unusual and they don't fully comprehend threatening.

I see it as a real gift.

[symbioid]

1 phrase: "the brown note" (jk, of course)

[bens_dad]

Along the same lines as the friend who suffered from perfect pitch ?

[cmcmck]

Oddly enough I also have perfect pitch which is rather useful for a singer.

[andrewducker]

I can definitely see that being a curse, if you're constantly aware of imperfections.

But "I see colours with music" doesn't seem likely to be awful in the same way.

[mountainkiss]

I can imagine how that might be awful but also how it might be brilliant.

[cmcmck]

Once I understood what was going on awful simply wasn't a word I'd use.

[danieldwilliam]

I think Russia will continue to stir up division in the West on any issue they possibly can for the next decade or so. Gender identification matters, religious identify of child abusers,Israel vs Palestine, colour of dresses, Coke vs Pepsi, Test Cricket vs T20.

In about 5 years they will have so wreaked their state capacity prosecuting their war in Ukraine that they will suffer serious problems and about 5 years after that they are going to have to ask the West for some help, at which point we're going to ask them to stop starting.

[andrewducker]

Absolutely. Putin's MO on this has been "Anything that gets westerners shouting at other westerners is good".

I really hope it doesn't take another 10 years. But you're probably right.

[calimac]

4. Can aphantastics draw the objects they can’t visualize?

[andrewducker]

I certainly can't. My art skills are limited to "Draw a thing that I have learned how to draw" - which in my case is stick people, houses appropriate for stick people to live in, and bunnies made of two circles.

Some fascinating responses to that question here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aphantasia/comments/8nahgz/artists_with_aphantasia_how_do_you_draw/

[mountainkiss]

I can only draw something in front of me.

[wildeabandon]

I can although not very well. I do it broadly by being able to draw geometric shapes and and remembering which geometric shapes things approximate to.

(This is only a partial description of what's going on internally, but its really difficult to introspect the rest of it, and even harder to put that introspection into words)

[mdlbear]

I appear to have some degree of aphantasia too. Not clear whether it's that, or hypophantasia. I do seem to "visualize" things better with my eyes open, which is weird.

[andrewducker]

That's fascinating!