Links post - February 2022
Recently, I have realised a surprising fact about myself: I have become a links aggregator.
I didn’t ever intend to! I have always been rather active on Facebook, but I used to post much more of my own opinions: often in the form of sharing posts that had pissed me off and captioning them with why I thought they were wrong, or else getting into fights in comments sections. But slowly, I have realised that reading a load of stupid articles or comments and getting angry about how stupid they were was actively making me stupider; and a side-effect of this realisation is that my Facebook timeline has slowly morphed into a repository of links I have found enlightening, enjoyable, interesting, or just generally good. This has not been a conscious process, though, and it’s only recently that I have noticed the outsize number of friends who mention how much they like my Facebook feed and how many good links they find there. This seems to be my comparative advantage.
I’m not sure whether I should interpret this fact as depressing or enlightening. But either way, I have found the δαίμων that holds the threads of my life, and so I must meet the challenges of the day and obey it. Here, then, are a bunch of links to stuff I have found in February (not necessarily published in February) and have enjoyed. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you will probably have seen these before.
Maybe long-term I will shift to posting all the links here and stop posting so much on Facebook; maybe I’ll abandon this format because I like Facebook so much; maybe we’ll all end up in the metaverse soon and nobody will have time for reading because we’ll all be simulating Nick Clegg doing the Carly Rae Jepsen video over and over (like the the experience machine but actually good). Who knows!
[normal disclaimer: not endorsements]
Compassion in World Farming UK Factory Farm Map - have a look at your own county.
The World’s Deadliest Thing - I have become completely obsessed by botulinum toxin - if anyone knows if there’s a good book on the subject, let me know.
The Classification of Humankind, and the Birth of Population Science
Lemmings Early Demo - The Lost Amiga Soundtrack [Emulated] - highlights include ‘If I Were a Rich Man’, the Adam West Batman theme, and the highest silly words density in the history of mankind with a mashup of ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’ and ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.
Notions of Impossible in Probability Theory
Why comedians stopped being funny
Boomer mathematics: why older generations can’t understand the millennial struggle to buy a house - the moral consequences of Baumol cost disease; Nietzsche was here first.
What’s the Deal With Imposter Syndrome? [sic] - this one produced a really interesting set of responses on Twitter when I shared it with comments applying it to Cambridge undergrads.
The Trojan Horse Affair: how Serial podcast got it so wrong
Probability theory does not extend logic - take some of this with a grain of salt; but it produced a lot of realisations in me where I already had all the relevant knowledge but hadn’t yet put it all together.
Playing with fire: Margaret Atwood on feminism, culture wars and speaking her mind - very fucking funny.