from the walls of the digital cave
Hi
Do villains have a code of ethics? We appear to have entered into a golden age of shitty behaviour, a time of fascination, of fervor, for fools and their fevered friends. The worse the conduct, the easier it is to spread. We move the shit around a field never fallow, it doesn't need to grow anything, just absorb. Soaking the world of communication with nonsense, piffle and stupidity, while we occasionally complain. This is the price we pay for porn and cats.
The robot is listening
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon
" Other reasons people may be hesitant to trust Amazon with personal voice samples include the previous usage of Alexa voice recordings in criminal trials and Amazon paying a settlement in 2023 in relation to allegations that it allowed 'thousands of employees and contractors to watch video recordings of customers' private spaces' taken from Ring cameras, per the Federal Trade Commission. "
Yeah, so this is just nuts.
I recognize there’s a degree of ease provided in having a thing in your house that you can talk to, that it will pick music for you or schedule when your next thing is.
I realize that there is a saving of time in not having to investigate and use your fingers. But the price you’re paying for this convenience is off the charts.
Amazon’s Alexa is now going to collect data, whether you want it to or not. Everything you’re saying is being collected by this robot, this minion of commerce. I don’t know how anybody can be all right with that.
It’s collecting everything you say. How on any level does anyone find that acceptable? It’s just monumentally weird to me that anybody would be all right with that.
What you say in the privacy of your own home is being recorded and can be accessed by Amazon personnel. Strangers of unknown intent. How is that okay?
Not what it seems
Optical illusions you can find in nature
" At first glance, this flower appears to be a face, with eyes, a nose, a mouth, and even hair. To some, the flower looks like a monkey face. The bizarre-looking flower is actually called a Dracula orchid, and the "eyes" are just short petals, according to the American Orchid Society. "
A collection of really cool optical illusions that occur in nature. I think optical illusions are fun to ponder.
All the ways our brains have evolved, the way the squishy head sponge pieces together information and creates reality.
Sometimes the reality is completely different from one person to the next, or it’s not reality at all. It’s just something that we’ve perceived through our individual parsing of the data that’s available.
It’s very interesting. Optical illusions serve to shine light on the interpretive nature of perception.
Hurting boys
The Pressure to ‘Act Like a Man’ Starts in Preschool
" Men simply have more to lose than girls if they don’t fall in line with 'gender typicality,' which is a term developmental psychologists use to understand masculinity and femininity based on peer comparison. In a patriarchal society like the U.S., boys consistently show higher levels of pressure to be masculine than girls feel to be feminine, which is predicated on them having more power, and therefore, more to lose. Basically, if you’re not a traditionally masculine man, you’re afforded less power and privilege. "
I’ve included this article because I’ve a son and a daughter, and there’s no question that my son feels the need to be masculine, to be a guy, trying to embrace the whole guys don’t cry nonsense.
My daughter certainly doesn’t feel any need to conform to any kind of gender norms. Boys have this insane pressure to act a certain way around their peers. Which then becomes transformative through repetition.
The article is an okay article. It’s worth a read. Not groundbreaking, more of a jumping off point for the consideration of why this is still happening.
Why do boys feel this ridiculous need to always be stoic in the face of everything? Real men don’t cry, it’s just so stupid. Really stupid.
Sometimes crying’s all you can do. Crying doesn’t mean you are not masculine. It means that you’re not running around tempering all your emotions so that society will deem you as acceptable using some outdated notion of what is required to thrive.
March 17, 1992
South African Apartheid Referendum
Not so long ago
Wiki Rabbit Hole
" A referendum on ending apartheid was held in South Africa on 17 March 1992. The referendum was limited to white South African voters, who were asked whether or not they supported the negotiated reforms begun by State President F. W. de Klerk two years earlier, in which he proposed to end the apartheid system that had been implemented since 1948. The result of the election was a large victory for the "yes" side, which ultimately resulted in apartheid being lifted. Universal suffrage was introduced two years later for the country's first non-racial elections. "
Building relativity
How Einstein Learned Physics
" This habit of skipping classes to focus on solving hard problems in his spare time was one cultivated by his uncle, Jakob Einstein, who first introduced him to algebra. By the time he was 12, Einstein already had a, 'predilection for solving complicated problems in arithmetic,' and his parents bought him an advanced mathematical textbook he could study from during the summer.
Einstein learned physics, not by dutifully attending classes, but by obsessively playing with the ideas and equations on his own. Doing, not listening, was the starting point for how he learned physics. "
I’m of the opinion that at least once a year you should think about Albert Einstein, because, why not?
A little bit of a focus here on how he came to be this groundbreaking physicist, this visionary who did so much to change the way we understand the world that we live in and the greater world around us that we can’t see.
It’s a good read, especially for anybody who feels that the best way to knowledge is through experimentation, observation, and trial and error. As opposed to just an uncovering of data that has already been considered and has no room for modification, adjusting or reinvention.
A student and proponent of discovery.
Spaceship lag
Swollen eyeballs, baby-like skin, and the overview effect: how astronauts feel when they return to Earth
“ The pair may also experience something called “the overview effect”. Seeing the curvature of the Earth, and seeing it from above – as its own kind of space ship, said Duffy – has led some astronauts to report an incredible connection to humanity, an immediate sense of its fragility.
'Some people call it a feeling of inspiration. Some people call it feelings of inadequacy in terms of just how big the world is,' said Tucker.
And then they have to come back down to Earth, both literally and figuratively. 'They have to make breakfast and they have to drive to work,' said Tucker. 'It is a huge transition from living in a very inspiring environment.' "
Well worth it to read this little article, to consider the two astronauts recently returned safely to earth.
A look at what they can expect as far as the effects of their stay in space psychologically and physiologically.
It’s fascinating to think about. We tend to become inured to this kind of thing. Oh, they’re out in space, not that big of a deal. No, it is, they’re out in space.
Good doggy
The Real Difference Between Wolves and Dogs
" The exact date is hard to pin down, but scientists estimate that dogs first broke off from their gray wolf ancestors between 15 and 40 thousand years ago. Dogs were the faithful companions of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and their bond with us has only grown stronger over thousands of years!
Even today, dogs stil share over 99 percent of their DNA with the gray wolf Canis lupus — but that fraction of DNA where they differ is extremely important. Dogs and wolves are family, but they are definitely not the same! "
Ending today with a fun look at the differences between dogs and wolves. I can’t think of another species that’s so essentially the same thing, but so completely different in how we humans interact with each.
I suppose you could make the same comparison for cats, but the difference between the big cats and your house cat is a great deal more significant.
House cats probably split off from the big cats, lions and tigers, ten million years ago. What we know of as domesticated dogs probably split off 30,000-ish years ago, some number around there. That’s a big difference.
We essentially let wolves in the house. Cute wolves.
“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
Franz Kafka
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