NESTED! Mystery Volcano, knitting scams, character amnesia, Lord Howe
Hi friends! I have some lovely time off and using it wisely to share with youse some things I’ve read in the past month:
Wikipedia is the best website
In 1808, there was a mystery volcano eruption — scientists could date a rise in sulfur aerosols that year, but there is no record of which volcano(es) actually erupted. Not all hope is lost though: this also happened in the year 1257 in Indonesia, and scientists identified the correct volcano in… 2013.
Not related, but our ability to date things in the past has dramatically increased “thanks to” the bomb pulse, the sudden increase of carbon in the atmosphere released by the nuclear weapon tests post-WWII.
There are people who play marbles professionally (!) and compete in the British and World Marbles Championship (!!), which has been running for over 430 years (!!!).
One road in Dartmoor is said to be cursed by the Hairy Hands, a pair of “disembodied hands that appear suddenly, grab at the steering wheel of a moving car, and then force the victim's vehicle off the road”. (The number of accidents and fatalities have reduced since traffic engineers levelled that stretch of road).
The American death triangle is a dangerous type of anchor in rock climbing. (Not to be confused with the previously-mentioned Zone of Death in America.)
Louisiana has a tradition of jazz funerals, with brass bands playing alongside a funeral procession.
Everything is going well
Mildly interesting
People in the coastal towns of Iceland have a tradition of going out at night and yeeting pufflings off of cliffs. (It’s for good reason! They are lost!)
Chinese speakers are experiencing widespread character amnesia: even highly literate people no longer remember how to write common characters by hand, in large part (but not only) due to the technological shift of using Pinyin to write text on computers and phones.
Scientists confirmed that strolls with frequent stops use more energy than continuous walking. Do with that what you will, I guess: stop less often on long hikes to conserve energy, and stop more regularly if you’re trying to exercise.
The Ig Nobel results are out, and one winner’s research suggests that the data on people who live extremely long lives is rotten from the inside out. The Mediterranean diet is not the only thing you need to become a centenarian: lacking a birth certificate or having your children commit pension fraud certainly help.
Previous winners of the Ig Nobel prize in Literature:
A study proving that very few people read user manuals. (UX professionals: [pretend to be shocked])
Researchers showing that what makes legal documents like contracts difficult to understand is not the specialised legal language, but poor writing skills. They found that it’s absolutely possible to rewrite contracts in a way that’s much easier to understand by both ordinary people and experts, while retaining nuances in meaning.
In my experience, this applies to many other professions. I have two running theories: first, most people just don’t read enough examples of good communication and simply emulate how most other people in their field write, which creates a vicious circle — a problem of output is a problem of input. Second, many people use overcomplicated words or language constructs (for example, the passive voice) because they care too much about appearing smart to their peers, and incorrectly believe that using plain language is “dumbing down” or makes them sound less sophisticated.
This site lets you visualise the average personality trait for people in a specific job, based on a study of almost 70,000 people in 250 occupations.
It’s not very user-friendly, but set “Two-dimensional plot” to “Yes” and scroll down to see the fun interactive graph of it all.
Not to confirm my theory above re: legalese, but in the item “Try to outdo others”, lawyers, judges and legal professionals all top the chart alongside a variety of managers.
Everything is depressing
I will skip US discourse except for this one published pre-election, because it’s Logistically Interesting: most election fraud claims still have very simple explanations.
A great opinion on phone addiction: unplugging is not the solution you want. A lot of people correctly assess that “people don’t succumb to screens because they’re lazy, but instead because billions of dollars have been invested to make this outcome inevitable”, but then only interpret it as meaning that you need a digital detox. Which is true, but that’s a bit like looking at other systemic problems like climate change and responding exclusively with individual consumption decisions. Like, yes you should recycle and reuse, and travel less, and eat less meat etc., but on their own these actions aren’t going to tip the scale at a global level.
See also: once you get the message, hang up the phone. (A warning apparently well-known to people who experiment with psychedelics but which can be easily applied to social media and, more broadly in that article, performative activism).
Today in AI is going great:
Whisper, the transcription tool that OpenAI says shouldn’t be used in critical decision-making contexts like hospitals, is used in hospitals and also invents things no one ever said, like medical treatments that never happened (or comments about race).
AI scams have infiltrated the knitting and crochet world, generating made-up patterns put up for sale on Etsy that are not actually usable. (via)
As an experiment, a NYT journalist got generative AI to make all of her daily decisions for a week, which made her life very boring — but it also unlocked a new genre of realistic dystopian sci-fi for me, because I can very much see that being a use case for many people.
Good to look at
Absolutely love this Passport Photos series by photographer Max Siedentopf. (via Luke)
A super clear explanation of why solar power will get too cheap to connect to the power grid (and why that’s a potentially very exciting thing for how we consume energy in the next 5-10 years).
Tactile buttons are finally making a comeback.
Using algorithms in the real world: the fastest way to alphabetise your bookshelf.
Some positive for social media: TikTokers are helping to bring indigenous languages back from the brink.
Make it Yourself, an ebook showcasing over 1,000 DIY projects from board games to tools to camping gear.
Why aren't smart people happier? is a great essay about… I don’t know, intelligence and happiness? Just trust me, it’s worth reading.
Work! Design! Tech!
One for my timezone nerds: Australia/Lord_Howe is the weirdest timezone. To save you from the clickbait title: Lord Howe Island only shifts by 30 minutes during its daylight saving period. The article is still interesting for being a long, but very readable explanation of how ZoneInfo files work and how computers actually work out daylight savings everywhere.
I recently learned about the different time system used in Ethiopia: time is still told on a 12 hour cycle, but goes from dawn to dusk rather than midnight to midday. See also: the Thai 6-hour clock.
An engineer’s guide to convincing your Product Manager to prioritise tech debt.
Web Interface Guidelines list details that make a good web interface.
Accessibility: a map of WCAG 2.2 by theme (via Darío)
Before you buy a domain name, check if it's haunted (= has been used for spamming and is blacklisted everywhere).
Lukewarm regards,
Victor