March 15, 2022
Pre-Surrealist Games
David Mitchell, "Manuel Complet des Jeux de Société by Elisabeth Celnart, 1827" and its story collab and/or Mad Libs-like precursors to Exquisite Corpse sometimes also in Catharine Harbeson Waterman's Book of Parlour Games, 1853: "L'Histoire ... in which each successive player only sees the last word of what was previously written ... [or, alternatively] in which each player adds information according to a previously agreed set of categories ... 'The game of 'l'histoire' [1812*; 1836*; Waterman 1853] is the same as the game of 'l'amphigouri' [1812*; 1866*], 'roman impromptu' [1812*; 1836*] and 'secrétaire' [1788*; 1812*; 1836*; Waterman 1853]." Also, on Oct. 10, 1824, Anne Lister (prev.) described the French parlor game of Les Résultats and compared it to Consequences [Higgins 1854; Sandison 1895]. Celnart is known for works on hair care, cosmetics*, perfumery, cooking*, etc.; Waterman, for a language of flowers. [*In French.]
rhetoric to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none
Denialism is a process that employs some or all of these characteristics.
1. Conspiracies.
2. Fake experts.
3. Selectivity.
4. Creation of impossible expectations for research.
5. Use of misrepresentation and logical fallacies, e.g. Hitler was anti-smoking therefore... [more inside]
1. Conspiracies.
2. Fake experts.
3. Selectivity.
4. Creation of impossible expectations for research.
5. Use of misrepresentation and logical fallacies, e.g. Hitler was anti-smoking therefore... [more inside]
The Growing Influence of State Governments on Population Health
"Disparities in health across the 50 states are growing, a trend that began in the 1990s. For example, in 1990, life expectancy in New York was lower than in Oklahoma, but the trajectories separated sharply in the 1990s and, by 2016, New York ranked third in life expectancy, whereas Oklahoma ranked 45th... The widening gap cannot be explained by changes in the racial and ethnic composition of states, because the same trend occurred within racial and ethnic groups... States assumed increasing powers decades ago, when the Reagan administration in the 1980s and the US Congress in the 1990s promoted devolution... States with different political priorities and economic circumstances made diverse policy choices, widening the gap..."
The Mister Global Pageant Is Back
Here are the "National Costumes" brought to you by Buzzfeed. What costume best epitomizes one's culture and nation, while also showing off one's abs? And who will be the most beautiful man? Spoiler alert: [more inside]
How To Make A Shillelagh, Ireland 1986
How To Make A Shillelagh, Ireland 1986 Such great comedy, so much melancholy.
Stephen Colbert interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jan 2010
Colbert was still doing his Comendy Central show. Tyson was at perhaps the height of his powers. The two are electric together, and the amount of science and good humor in this 1h25m is delightful. Stephen Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberley Academy - 2010-Jan-29 Previously, from 2011.
These are good shapes, nice shapes.
Parable of the Polygons: A Playable Post on the Shape of Society These little cuties are 50% Triangles, 50% Squares, and 100% slightly shapist. But only slightly! In fact, every polygon prefers being in a diverse crowd. You can only move them if they're unhappy with their immediate neighborhood. They've got one, simple rule: “I wanna move if less than 1/3 of my neighbors are like me.” Harmless, right? Every polygon would be happy with a mixed neighborhood. Surely their small bias can't affect the larger shape society that much? Well... [more inside]
Will There Ever Be an Openly Queer NHL Player?
It seems to me that there’s something about men’s hockey—a sport about which comedian Rodney Dangerfield once reportedly quipped, “I went to a fight last night and a hockey game broke out”—that’s especially unfriendly to queerness. Its core culture remains one of male aggression, where weakness of any kind, real or perceived, gets weaponized.I know what I’m talking about because I left hockey myself, largely over not being “manly enough”. Alex Manley writes in The Walrus.
Daylight Saving Time for everrrrrr
The Senate has unanimously passed a resolution to make DST permanent. In a bill co-sponsored by (my man!) Sheldon Whitehouse of RI and Marco Rubio of FL, Daylight Saving Time would become permanent. In other words, we just "sprang forward" and will never "fall back" again.
This is change sought by medical groups and populist lawmakers, though individual vary on whether they prefer Standard Time or DST. [more inside]
Pathocracy, or how psychopathy takes over a society
Pathocracy, identified by the Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski, is the condition where government of a society is dominated by those with psychopathological disorders. It begins when one such disordered individual emerges as a leader figure; soon, their personality amplifies it, filtering out those appalled by their brutality and irresponsibility but attracting others who see it as charisma and decisiveness. Soon, others with psychopathic traits attach themselves to the power hierarchy, while responsible and moral people leave or are ejected, and before long, the entire government is filled with people with a pathological lack of empathy and conscience. This psychopathy soon spreads beyond the government, through the population, through propaganda and polarising ideology. [more inside]
It's not really the brown girls from Jersey City who save the world.
The Ms. Marvel tv series trailer just appeared. The series will stream on Disney+ starting June 6, 2022. [more inside]
insect art
Insects in Art "Throughout history and across many cultures, insects have inspired artists and artisans. Moth larvae, bees and beetles have provided silk, wax, dyes and other art media. Some insects leave traces on their environment that artists capture, while others in effect become collaborators as their natural behaviors are incorporated into art."
“Put another nickel in…the nickel-in-the-slot”
In 1890, Mssrs. Louis Glass and William S. Arnold patented the "Coin Actuated Attachment for Phonographs," which took a nickel and played a wax cylinder into headphone-like "listening tubes" that patrons would stick in their ears. They were the first jukeboxes. Glass installed one at the Palais Royale Saloon, 303 Sutter Street, San Francisco. (The building was destroyed by fire after the 1906 earthquake; the landmark Hammersmith Building now sits at that address.) It was immediately popular, and over the next six months Glass placed several more around San Francisco (from the link: in the first six months of operation, “the first 15 coin-op machines in San Francisco had brought in $4,019” in 1890 money, or about $120,000 today. That’s a lot of nickels!) [more inside]
Big Boat Stuck Again
This is not a Doubles Jubilee post, they really have done it again. Almost a year to the day since the EVER GIVEN wedged herself across the Suez canal, another Evergreen ship - the deliciously inaptly named EVER FORWARD - is hard aground in Chesapeake Bay. AIS tracking suggests she may have missed the turn into the Craighill Channel on her way out of Baltimore, putting the 43ft deep ship - all 120,000 tons of her - firmly aground on a shoal in only 24ft of water. Refloating her will be a major operation. Strap yourselves in folks, for another exciting round of maritime salvage rubbernecking.
Guess the Secret Word!
Semantle has been mentioned a few times in MeFi Wordle-type-game threads—it works by letting you know how "semantically similar" the word you've guessed is to the target word: how close you are, or "(cold)". From the maker, erstwhile MeFite David Turner: "...[I]t's not about the spelling; it's about the meaning. The similarity value comes from Word2vec. The highest possible similarity is 100 (indicating that the words are identical and you have won). By "semantically similar", I mean, roughly "used in the context of similar words, in a database of news articles." He also warns that you will need more than six guesses. You can play once a day, but you can keep on guessing during that game's 24-hour period. It'll keep some stats on how you've been doing over time, too. [more inside]
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