As Dungeons & Dragons marks its fiftieth anniversary—the tabletop role-playing game that invites players to invent and articulate their own narrative arcs, psychiatrists are increasingly prone to recognise the benefit of play as a heuristic for group therapy. Whilst research is ongoing regarding improving social skills and empathy, many patients and counsellors (in the loose role of Dungeon Master, despite or because of the attendant Satanic Panic) alike have accepted the approach as effective.
Sunday 13 October 2024
Monday 30 September 2024
8x8 (11. 884)
glamos: Switzerland and Italy agree to redraw their borders due to melting glaciers
a purrfect storm: the childless cat lady trope goes back to the origins of female suffrage and political participation—see previously
main character syndrome: a need for recognition and validation fuelled by technological change drives self-mythologising whether or not there’s an audience—see also
daily affirmation: fifty years of Saturday Night Live title cards and graphic design
viscawide-16: a Wiki dedicated to vintage and antique cameras—via Pasa Bon!
ultraviolence: Trump proposes sanctioning a day of lawlessness, akin to the plot of The Purge or Kristallnacht to end criminal behaviour
we are the trampions: the annual European street car driver competition—see previously
industrial age: UK shutters last coal-fired power-plant, ending a one hundred forty two year era
Wednesday 25 September 2024
cuteness aggression (11. 870)
We enjoyed this gloss on the rapid descent of Moo Deng (the glossy Thai baby pygmy hippopotamus whose name translates into “Bouncy Pork”—just saying) from adorable celebrity to an object of transgression and focus of violent urges through obliviously trolling and attention seeking but also the psychological coping mechanism of intrusive thoughts to counter a cuteness overload, those fleeting flashes of thoughts of wanting to mash, drop or barbecue something sweet and innocent that we are normally a bit embarrassed and bothered by and would never, never admit to for fear of being called a monster—but of course some are willing to get voice to those involuntary and (usually) never acted on ideas.
catagories: ๐ง , networking and blogging
Monday 9 September 2024
subway surfer (11. 828)
Though arguably in the general case a bigger assault on our concentration and aimed for the low-attention span audience, the TikTok split-screen technique, when correctly deployed, like this superb bit of juxtaposition from the Harris-Walz campaign, courtesy of Kottke, that pits GOP taking-points on abortion and other parts of their platform with a video game speed-run, is a remedy for those suffering from Trump and election reporting fatigue—not to promote those views but to engage those averse to any news about the Republican ticket who’s default is to zone out and listen to the dangerous and weird things that they have to say.
@kamalahq oof
♬ original sound - Kamala HQ
Thursday 5 September 2024
schnelling points (11. 816)
Humans have a seemingly uncanny knack for solving complex coordination problems when communication and prior planning is limited by uncovering the shared cultural or knowledge-based default in a such situation, concerting the intentions and expectations and land on the above foci, named after economist and game-theorist Thomas Schelling.
Cooperative experiments demonstrate that a team of individuals acting towards shared end will pick the same time and place for a rendezvous. Part of the allure of AI models is that they seem also quite good at coordination problems—from predictive text, to routine emails to proofreading to peer-review, insofar as they have been trained on the social norms that we draw on as well to achieve a common goal. Artificial intelligence has a worse track record when it comes to something genuinely innovative or unprecedented, and moreover may erode the implicit social bargain that underpins cooperative efforts. The routine is also ritual and outsourcing them, like the above onerous tasks, dulls not only the refining practise when it comes to composing an email—which is also the author’s assessment of their audience—but of course lands as disingenuous and meritless when one can’t be bothered to dash off a good reference or buy someone a gift that was not generated by algorithm. What do you think? We’ve always been taking short-cuts but subverting ceremony altogether seems more serious. More from Henry Farrell at the link above.Sunday 1 September 2024
9x9 (11. 807)
city corridor: Metropolitan Museum of Art to exhibit the built and unbuilt visions of architect Paul Rudolph—see previously
move over miss marple: German television mystery series imagines what the former Chancellor is doing with her retirement
batteries not included: peruse the complete catalogues of Radio Shack produced over its six decades of business—plus this theme songmizzenmast: experimental solar sail prepares for its first voyage—see previously
a copy of a copy: AI’s synthetic data is its downfall—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links
marshmallow test: the heuristic for delayed gratification and executive functions is fraught with bias and harmful assumptions—via Hyperallergic
preowned platform: IKEA launches a second-hand marketplace to become a circular company within the decade—via Nag on the Lake
substantially worse than random chance: seemingly counterintuitive probability puzzles are perplexing social media—see previously
cerceri d’invenzione: the aesthetic and romance of imagining ruins of foregone civilisations
Monday 26 August 2024
not ready for this (11. 793)
synchronoptica
one year ago: an independent press for the stateless (with synchronoptica) plus the architecture of diplomacy
seven years ago: a podcast mini-series on witchcraft plus Babylonia trigonometry
eight years ago: 1980s animated production logos, super-recognisers plus assorted links worth revisiting
nine years ago: conscription, impressment and universal taxation
ten years ago: repentful paintings
Sunday 25 August 2024
9x9 (11. 791)
rhythm 0: in 1974 artist Marina Abramoviฤ subjected her unmoving body to a six-hour ordeal to see how an audience might objectify her
bang records: a documentary about the life and career of songwriter Bert Berns behind “Here Comes the Night,” “Brown-Eyed Girl,” “Hang on Sloopy” and many other standards
back to obamacore: with hope and the end of history, the Harris-Walz campaign gives nostalgic vibes of 2008—via Web Curios
gothamq loop: a prototype quantum network being tested beneath the streets of Queens
geography and maps division: a mystery, featureless solid silver globe at the US Library of Congress—via the Map Room
mice fancy: how a Victorian hobbyist breeding programme became a mainstay of the laboratory
diversion tunnel: Margaret Bourke-White (previously) documents building of a dam in Montana in 1936
diminished by its artsiness: studio pulls trailer for Megalopolis after realising the marketing team used AI to generate phoney tag-lines by famous film critics—via Super Punch
the birth of coolth: Sentence First explores similarly constructed neologisms, including the statistical term shorth for shortest half—via Language Hat
the confetti illusion: oranges are sold in red mesh bags to enhance their orangeness—via Marginal Revolution—see also
synchronoptica
one year ago: paper dolls and digital avatars (with synchronoptica) plus bat men on the Moon
seven years ago: more from artist Lance Wyman, assorted links to revisit, anti-migrant riots in Rostock (1992) plus a collection of government sponsored cartoons
nine years ago: the birthday of Sean Connery plus adiaphora and cafeteria Christianity
ten years ago: the sacred, prognosticating chickens of Rome
eleven years ago: creative interpretations of film
Wednesday 21 August 2024
10x10 (11. 783)
zener cards: the phenomenon of population stereotypes help mentalists seem genuine to their audience—via The New Shelton wet/dry
null island: the nation of Kiribati (see also, see previously) straddles the four hemispheres
mycobbuoys: a natural anchored float to help ween aquaculture off of plastics and keep them out of the oceans
gisnep: a hybrid jumble, Connect-Four and cross-word game—via Neatorama
vanquish surveillance, not democratise it: California legislators’ deal to have Big Tech sponsor local journalism causes concern it may affirm monopolies rather than break them up
who’s telling trump he might be seeking one of those black jobs: former US first lady Michelle Obama taunts the GOP candidate for his comments about immigrants taking away supposed targeted employment opportunities
seven-segment display: the fast technological progression from the incandescent numitrons to the liquid crystal display—see previously
dishonourable mentions: winners of the annual Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest—see previously
veni, vidi, vici: discover Roman antiquities in your area—via Satyrs’ Link Roll
miss cleo knows the truth: confessions of psychic hotline operator—via tmn
synchronoptica
one year ago: a classic from Gary Numan (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: staunch Prohibitionists
eight years ago: cross-species friendships, taxidermied instruments plus healthy microbiomes
nine years ago: the scramble for the poles plus asylum problems in Germany
ten years ago: Pallas’ Cat
Sunday 18 August 2024
trial balloon (11. 778)
Much in the same way as Brexit provisioned and prefigured the politics of MAGA and the election of Trump, the same amplified contagion unchecked
that fuelled violent race riots is subjecting Britain to an experiment by omission and testing the bounds of social media advocacy for by an arbiter of truth who is incautious about dissemination of falsehoods and faces few challenges or repercussions in the echo chamber, star chamber for being critical of a government whose policies he is in disagreement with. With the guardrails removed and no consequences for weighing in on political matters—over that stay of contrition of four years ago during the insurrection went social networks promised to do better about policing dangerous and illegal content, ranging from political violence, interference operations, disenfranchisement to COVID conspiracies—indeed what is to stop influence peddlers and grifters and avowed agents of chaos from forecasting or declaring that the US (or any other polity) is on the brink of civil war? Such outrageous and irresponsible punditry has always existed but now has an insurmountable volume.Saturday 17 August 2024
9x9 (11. 776)
reduced to rubble: the razing and rebuilding of Gaza—via Maps Mania
anniversary vinyl: Andy Baio presses a limited edition of his chiptune homage, Kind of Bloop—see previously
hooked on phonics: New Zealand’s requirement for structured literacy in the classroom threatens bilingualism—see previously
dnc: parallels between the 1968 Chicago convention and the upcoming one
isogloss: the geography of the pronunciation of scone in Britain—see previously here and here—rhymes with gone
fredkin’s paradox: thirty useful concepts to help understand the world—via Duck Soup—see also
triplicate: researchers find that the brain keeps three copies of each memory—via the new Shelton wet/dry
von trapp: overtouristed Salzburgers air their ambivalence about the sixtieth anniversary of The Sound of Music (see also here and here)
east jerusalem: Israeli finance minister renews call for the annexation of the West Bank
Tuesday 13 August 2024
lethonomia (11. 762)
Incorporating the element of Lethe, the Underworld river of forgetting one’s mortal existence, via Kottke we are introduced to the term for a tendency to not recall names that falls under wider concept of Carl Jung’s lethological and loganamnosis, a compulsion to recall a specific word that’s slipped one’s mind. I can especially relate to the latter tip-of-the-tongue phenomena—a recall not limited to conversation but also research and trying to wrest something from the archives and memory banks, fishing around for a file name or increasingly a descriptor that algorithm might understand and coming up against a slew of dead-ends and googlewhacks (I had to reach to remember that one) but will keep hunting—despite sometimes feeling gaslighted when I can’t find something I know I posted about or photographed—until thoroughly exhausted.
Monday 5 August 2024
8x8 (11. 746)
divi recap: the obfuscating vocabulary of finance and corporate take-overs
ch₄: methane removal may prove as the most effective way to curb the climate collapse
anima and archetype: an overview of the thought of Carl Jung—see previously
mamala: Maya Rudolf returning to the cast and reprising her role as Kamala Harris for the fiftieth season of Saturday Night Live—via Miss Cellania
v. to remove monks from: demonachise and other infrequently used words
wall flowers: increased appreciation of complex and nuanced botanical behaviour leads a new branch of plant philosophy
rewiring: if billionaires truly wanted to save the planet, they’d buy heat-pumps for every home—via Kottke
big brother and the holding company: the spiteful origins of Berkshire Hathaway and corporate hard-pivots
Sunday 4 August 2024
13x13 (11. 744)
hot clipmalabor summer: a Scots language translation of the latest trend
the pudding: AI makes a data-driven visual story—via Kottke
dรฉsolรฉ! taking a mental health year: American vs European out-of-office auto-replies
the paris games: a look back at the other times the French capital hosted the Olympics—via Nag on the Lakefaustian bargain: Russian “Tiergarten Killer” released as part of prisoner-swap
the lord house: a tour of a home designed by architecture Richard Neutra—see previously
take me to the water: James Baldwin and the roots of the Palestinian-African American solidarity movement
hop, skip and a jump: e-bikes for one’s legs
dressage: Snoop Dogg as head Olympic cheerleader
securing the peace: US mobilising to shore up defences in Middle East
minoritarian rule: US in democracy self-destruct mode
yay newfriend: a linguistic look at the new AI pendant companion
emdunks: the internet’s infatuation with the Second- and possibly future First-Gentleman
Wednesday 31 July 2024
somewhat agree (11. 735)
Via tmn, we become more familiar with the pervasive rating scale used on polls, research questionnaires and surveys, a range of response choices that are immediately recognisable, but that we didn’t know that the psychometrics are called the after their namesake, social psychologist Rensis Likert. Also developing ostensibly the antithesis in open-ended interviewing—to glean more information from respondents on their perspectives and preferences but filtered with a funnelling technique that narrows down answers towards a given goal—and management system styles that are also pretty well-known and pop-up on leadership and workplace satisfaction assessments too: Exploitative Authoritative, Benevolent Authoritative, Consultative, Participative, the scale of agreement and disagreement and measure of intensity has slowly seeped out academics and test markets to rankings, reviews and instant feedback quantified for everything. How likely are you to recommend the Likert scale to your colleagues?
Tuesday 30 July 2024
monty hall enlightenment (11. 733)
Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are invited to revisit the sometimes fiercely and vehemently counterintuitive probability puzzle based on the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal. Though it is easy to demonstrate that one should always switch doors, have a two out three chance of winning rather than staying with one’s original choice, there are an array of perfectly unreasonable factors that at play that make people stick with their original bet and believing the odds to be even, whereas they’re only ⅓ as likely to not walk away with a prize goat, the dilemma and its trenchant nature says a lot about human bias and errors of commission. Even mathematicians and physicists come to the wrong conclusion until being disabused (sometimes it never takes as our original selection is endowed by magical thinking and those times when we switch and lose cling to our minds more) by brute repetition or by positioning themselves as host and realising that certain protocols are followed in games of chance. This is a specific and tenacious example which illustrates our withering capacity for judgment but I wonder if there are analogous other odds that we similarly misunderstand.
Monday 29 July 2024
ad copy (11. 728)
Via Web Curios, we enjoyed perusing this gallery of mostly—but not exclusively—vintage Anglophone print advertisements that make the exception to the curator’s collection entitled, “Nobody Reads Ads” from Miguel Ferreira, who writes a lot about commericals and creativity. There are some really effective and arresting ones, though not the ones that everyone remembers as indisputable examples, that are lost in the data of engagement and targeting and each demonstrates a subtle hook to an audience that is not exactly self-selecting. What are some of your favourites or ones you think have been overlooked and should be included? Much more at the links above.
Monday 22 July 2024
tron/troff (11. 710)
Via Slashdot, we are directed towards a reflective essay from Harvard Computer Science professor Harry R Lewis, whom taught both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, positing the two enduring lessons of technology: be careful what you ask them for and it can be hard to tell what they are doing. Gleaned already back in the mid- to late-1960s when electromechanical computers were far from inscrutable, prior to miniaturisation of circuits, Lewis, through switches and dials, learned how to listen to machines to not only diagnose problems but also, with careful attention (see also), to know if a programme was going to deliver reliable results and goes on to address the doubly blackboxed array of algorithms and lickspittle mimicry of artificial intelligence by never bypassing human judgment from the parameters and recognising that the humanities don’t provide ready answers but rather better informed questions and lines of inquiry.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Mary Magdalen (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, a challenging diplomatic mission plus a history of ink
eleven years ago: a toy drone
fourteen years ago: a storied Berlin discothek plus a Bulli cake
Wednesday 17 July 2024
amusing ourselves to death (11. 699)
Using the 1985 bestseller by educator Neil Postman, which draws on the dichotomy of the dystopian futures envisioned by George Orwell in 1984 and Aldous Huxley in Brave New World with the public stripped of rights by totalitarian governments in the narrative of the former and people voluntarily self-medicating and foregoing their liberties in an induced and voluntary state of blissful ignorance in the
latter, Boing Boing contributor Mark Frauenfelder presents an analysis of this dilution, delusion of news, culture and politics repackaged as commodities in our present forms of media, our soma. Presentation and format—“the medium is the metaphor,” see also—makes everything entertainment and a passive and non-critical one at that, written at a time when another celebrity held the office of US president, impressed on the general psyche not in words but in glancing television images and photo opportunities and carefully staged soundbites. Frauenfelder’s excerpts, like the below citation are addressing the fragmentation-effect of network news but accord perfectly with social media as well, TikTok substituted here:“Now … this” is commonly used on radio and television newscasts to indicate that what one has just heard or seen has no relevance to what one is about to hear or see, or possibly to anything one is ever likely to hear or see. The phrase is a means of acknowledging the fact that the world as mapped by the speeded-up electronic media has no order or meaning and is not to be taken seriously. There is no murder so brutal, no earthquake so devastating, no political blunder so costly—for that matter, no ball score so tantalising or weather report so threatening—that it cannot be erased from our minds by a newscaster saying, “Now … this.” The newscaster means that you have thought long enough on the previous matter (approximately forty-five seconds), that you must not be morbidly preoccupied with it (let us say, for ninety seconds), and that you must now give your attention to another fragment of news or a commercial.
Much more at the links above.
Sunday 14 July 2024
the great white way (11. 691)
Via the New Shelton wet/dry, we are directed towards an interesting biography of the individual, coining the above nickname for Broadway in 1901 due to its dazzling electric lights, responsible for the spectacle of Times Square, OJ Gude. Taking advantage of the accident of civil planning that had created a bowtie-shape with the intersections of 45th Street and Seventh Avenue that was an ideal amphitheatre for showcasing the energy and dynamism of commerce and advertising, Gude designed many of the flashing, animated billboards that fill the skyline. This theatre-in-the-round upstaging the playhouse-district put the show on the periphery for a captive audience of consumers, who couldn’t ignore the advertisers’ messages, was a bit of promotional genius, the tradition upheld for over a century, with Gude’s salesmanship directly behind many of the iconic and colossal displays. More at the links above.