For Daily Nonsense


Some interesting sculpture by Willy Verginer, via this great art blog Slow Decade.


Almost everyday I read MetaFilter. It’s a group blog of cool links, most of them exceedingly weird. Today’s catch includes erotic illustrations of Alice In Wonderland (NSFW), Thomas Dolby’s account of meeting Michael Jackson, and a debate on whether the Large Haldron Collider is being sabotaged from the future. Sometimes I wonder why I read these things, but then I read this other article which talked of how nonsense sharpens the intellect. So perhaps I’m not just jobless.

To quote:

In addition to assorted bad breaks and pleasant surprises, opportunities and insults, life serves up the occasional pink unicorn. The three-dollar bill; the nun with a beard; the sentence, to borrow from the Lewis Carroll poem, that gyres and gimbles in the wabe.

An experience, in short, that violates all logic and expectation. The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote that such anomalies produced a profound “sensation of the absurd,” and he wasn’t the only one who took them seriously. Freud, in an essay called “The Uncanny,” traced the sensation to a fear of death, of castration or of “something that ought to have remained hidden but has come to light.”

At best, the feeling is disorienting. At worst, it’s creepy.

Now a study suggests that, paradoxically, this same sensation may prime the brain to sense patterns it would otherwise miss — in mathematical equations, in language, in the world at large.

“We’re so motivated to get rid of that feeling that we look for meaning and coherence elsewhere,” said Travis Proulx, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and lead author of the paper appearing in the journal Psychological Science. “We channel the feeling into some other project, and it appears to improve some kinds of learning.”

So I suppose that’s one reason I seek these things out. I also remember the earlier days of infinite Internet and the mind boggling links I used to find in Wired Magazine. I suspect that crazy gung-ho Internet is still out there, but my diet has become much more domesticated (Facebook, Twitter, New York Times, repeat). That’s why I like MetaFilter, for an occasional mental shuffle. I like to think that it’s good for me.

RSS feed | Trackback URI

2 Comments »

2009-10-19 18:53:48

Oh you read fita-melter :) . Hope you might find ffffound.com (4 fs) interesting.

2009-10-19 19:05:47

And some more NSFW fairytail/cartoon stuff http://www.houseandgadgets.com/another-face-of-stories
Believe me there are colorful :)

 
 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.

email indi AT indi.ca.


Recent Comments


You’re Nobody Till (45)

Regewaypere2: Asortyment uzupe?nia Outcast przestrzenna uciecha przygodowa i klisza Setnie Speedway. Nu?e na godzin? poprzednio wschodem s?o?ca nieruchomosci odby? wspomnian? z wykorzystaniem Benwolia przechadzk? w gaju sykomorowym mamy w...

Sarath Fonseka And Minority Politics (9)

tastyjujubes: Being more “Tamil 221; is not going to help the Sri Lankan Tamils to be honest. Being even more insular, introverted and ethnocentric is not going to help the Tamil people. The Tamils of Sri Lanka live on an island with a...

Ramesh: Tamils,particul arly those in the norh consider themselves a distinct entity separate from sinhalese people.So if they vote for sinhala political parties, there unique identity gets diluted.When they vote for a tamil party in numbers,they...

New New Kottu (4)

Saj: This looks cool. Without knowing about the upgrade i was accessing kottu from my phone.. Yea it looks like an app. Why dont u think about creating an app? :)

tastyjujubes: Have to say the pink colour used on the dark grey background on the top is a bit of an eyesore. Everything else looks great.

tastyjujubes: I remember the days when Sinhala was basically nonexistent and the blogosphere was dominated by a few folks with narrow minds – look at it now… It’s great.

General Sarath Fonseka Out Soon? (11)

tastyjujubes: I just wrote the above and then went to google news about Lanka and was met with this: Sri Lanka ‘must face war probes’ Sri Lanka must co-operate with any international investigation into alleged war crimes, ex-army chief...

tastyjujubes: Sarath Fonseka is a symbol of division. Even his release has divided society in general (well, at least Sinhalese society in general) and not united it going by the reaction of various people.

Lankan Thinker: I have a suspicion the government will restore SFs right to engage in political activity since his participation will effectively split the opposition votes – and is unlikely to attract any more support from the government&...

Buying Appliances Online (Singer) (5)

indi: Dude, she comes once a week and I pay Rs. 750. It’s a great deal I think.

Why Does India Suck At The Olympics?

Today on the morning show we talked about the Olympics, namely China’s emerging dominance. For me the bigger question is India. Why does India suck so much? In 2008 the US won 110 medals, China won 100 and India won… 3. India has over a billion people, some economic clout and is by all counts an emerging superpower, but they suck at the Olympics. Why?

New New Kottu

Janith has updated Kottu with rims and shit. Seriously, it looks pretty good. You could say the desktop look is cosmetic, but check out the mobile. Kottu now looks like an app with settings and menus and such. The biggest problem with K2 is me, ie, it now takes me up to a month to respond to emails. OMG I’m scared of my email. But Janith’s done this code and design update all by himself and it looks pretty good. Check it out. There was one bug with the previous page link. Lettuce know if there’s any more.

Miss Travel. Alternately, Mistravel

This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like seekingarrangement.com connects women to ‘sugar daddies’ already. I guess Miss Travel is just taking that trend international. Wait, I checked, it’s the same guy doing both.

Buying Appliances Online (Singer)

Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from Singer, ONLINE. I put the online in all caps because it’s pretty awesome. I ordered the thing in like 15 minutes on Saturday and they just delivered it today. It’s pretty awesome, this brave new world.