Say bye to the online comment section as you know it

I thought this was a pretty thought-provoking read, even if I don’t agree with every point. It really is pretty sad to think how far the situation has diverged from our idealistic imaginings in the nineties and oughts.

Does our fatigue with unfiltered opinion reflect a larger philosophical change, though? Are we disenchanted with the idea of equality itself? Our expectations of people, people generally, have been so disappointed. People just turned out to be so much dumber than we had hoped. Dumber, angrier, more irrational, impulsive. People are just scary. What does this say for our enshrinement of democracy?

Perhaps media managers have decided not that they hate people, or even people with opinions, or even people with stupid opinions, but that the expressing of an opinion must require a minimum symbolic effort, it must require entering a system of conventions. At least in spaces that they are paying for. Outside these, people may create any number of their own spaces with different conventions. Is this drawing of new boundaries an abandonment of democratic principles? I think not: We restrict voting in elections in a number of ways (age, citizenship) and yet our elections are still deemed democratic. A refusal to provide a space in which blind rage is fomented is not the abandonment of democracy, but the protection of it.

Russell Smith: Say bye to the online comment section as you know it

New Laser-Cut Wood Illustrations by Martin Tomsky | Colossal

Inspired by the relics of his parents’ past as Czech publishers and book smugglers, Martin Tomsky (previously) produces laser-cut illustrations that introduce depth with several layers of plywood in varying tones. Originally immersed in drawing detailed scenes on paper, Tomsky transferred his skills to the 3D, creating stories that seem tangled in lore and feature the outlines of animal skeletons, dense forestry, and mythical beasts.

The London-based artist aims to create work that speaks to craft, illustration, and sculpture, each piece serving as both a decorative object and wall-mounted story. Although many of his works are large and intricate productions, he also works small, singling out animal characters like owls, rabbits, and badgers in necklace pendants and brooches. You can see more of Tomsky’s laser-cut tales on his Etsy and Facebook page here.

Source: New Laser-Cut Wood Illustrations by Martin Tomsky | Colossal

Making a Washing Machine That Recycles Its Own Water

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosted the inauguralMIT Water Innovation Prize, inviting attendees from around the world to pitch their water-conservation device or business to a panel of judges for a chance to win grants totaling $30,000. One of three big winners for the night was a new washing-machine filter that seeks to recycle 95 percent of laundry wastewater.

Source: Making a Washing Machine That Recycles Its Own Water

Stars—They’re Just Like Us! | Issue 24 | n+1

[This is probably the most interesting defense of astrology I’ve ever encountered. -egg]

“Whence has fantasy acquired its bad reputation?” Carl Jung once wrote. In a world in which irrationality is seen as a correctable flaw rather than a fixture of human life, fantasy has no place. But this is not our world, and Jung, whose dabbling in the occult did taint his reputation as Freud warned it would, was right when he said that astrology’s “value is obvious enough to the psychologist, since astrology represents the sum of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity.” The archetypes one finds in the zodiac belong to the collective unconscious, and the importance of such symbols is that they figure into our thoughts whether they ought to or not. A common concept in therapy is projection: the tendency of a patient to imbue impersonal symbols with personal meaning in the process of interpretation, be they dreams, inkblots, or slips of the tongue. Whether the source material is in itself “true” doesn’t make what comes out of it—the reading of one’s self through that material—false. One might say the same of astrology.

The painter may look at the Scorpio and see Scorpio traits, another instance of confirmation bias. But the color-filter overlay of any deterministic language, be it astrology or psychoanalysis or anything else, can shed some light from time to time. Taken alone, the filter is reductive: dialing up the contrast, blasting shades of gray into patches of black and white. But as a supplement to other points of view—what’s visible on first impression, say, or what you know of someone from experience—it adds another dimension, pulling some features into the foreground and pushing others to the back, reminding you of a person’s complexity. As skeptics have long argued, part of what makes astrology appealing (and so easily proven “true”) is that each sign of the zodiac has a cluster of traits assigned to it that may be found in nearly any person. Astrology could thus be seen as a humanizing corrective to other, worse stereotypes. To consider that the shy person is sometimes wild, the considerate person sometimes duplicitous, is to practice something rather like empathy.

Source: Stars—They’re Just Like Us! | Issue 24 | n+1

The Bear in the Moonlight | Math with Bad Drawings

These are fun, and will be especially of use to someone who doesn’t care for working through typical math.

I love probability. I love stories. And I love marshmallows. So I wrote these probability lessons disguised as stories. Or perhaps they’re stories disguised as probability lessons. (I couldn’t figure out a way to work in the marshmallows. Sorry, folks.)

The Bear in the Moonlight consists of seven tales about a curious student and a wise, Zen-like teacher. Each little fable aims to impart a truth about probability, and is followed by an explanation of the underlying ideas. (In the pdf versions you’ll also find discussion questions, in case you’re hoping these can garnish your lesson plans).

They’re for students. They’re for teachers. They’re for anyone curious about the mathematics of the unknown and the unknowable.

 

Source: The Bear in the Moonlight | Math with Bad Drawings