FailForward @FailForward@qoto.org

# How butterflies fly

Source:
* [YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FfeiU_eIB1c)
* https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210121132059.htm

> Until now, the common perception has been that butterfly wings are aerodynamically inefficient, however, the researchers suggest that the opposite is actually true.

> ... researchers studied the wingbeats of freely flying butterflies during take-off in a wind tunnel.

> _During the upward stroke, the wings cup, creating an air-filled pocket between them. When the wings then collide, the air is forced out, resulting in a backward jet that propels the butterflies forward. The downward wingbeat has another function: the butterflies stay in the air and do not fall to the ground._

When driving (especially long distances, being tired, etc.), sometimes you do things which only in retrospect you realise were not the safest manoeuvre to perform.

I often wondered whether people would be scared if they had an analogue gauge installed in their car dashboard which would be showing the current likelihood of them (or their passengers) being killed in an accident in the next, say 3 minutes.

I guess, some of us would get freaked out often enough to drive more carefully. or perhaps not drive at all.

@nanko

# Terracollage, Nature timelapses and ASMR slime videos

Went down the rabbit hole triggered by [this toot](https://qoto.org/@metapsyche/105637092639750846) by @metapsyche.

* created by [Roman De Giuli/Terracollage](https://www.terracollage.com/)
* link to the original [SATELLIKE video on Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/504369243)
* many other creations like this to be found at his [Vimeo page](https://vimeo.com/user4801470)

> Roman De Giuli is a German photographer and filmmaker, specialized in practical effects and experimental fluid art. His compositions mainly consist of fluids, powders and colours which are applied on paper to create vivid, three dimensional scenes. High resolution stills and 8K videos are captured with macro lenses to cover tiny areas in enormous reproduction scales. Roman does extensive studies of organic patterns, their behaviour and movement. With the help of music and sound design, he transforms the abstract narrative potential of his hand made visuals to experimental montages with a cinematic character.

These are truly beautiful creations. Captivating to watch. Indeed, it very much resembles timelapses of satellite overpasses/captures of evolutions of regions of out planet Earth. #aesthetics #art #beauty

Now, what came to my mind while watching this was that even though I know this is not real, it still has the same effect on me as if it were real. Which probably says that it's the motion, the colours and the music which invokes that emotion, not so much what it is. There is something meditative about watching this. #asmr #meditation

That was the romantic part. The other thought which popped up quickly was realisation that this mesmerizing feeling, that urge to _watch more of this stuff_ is probably the very same emotion today's children and youngsters have watching [ASMR Slime videos](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=asmr+slime) which are so popular among youth on Youtube. A parent observing their child watching this weird stuff again and again looks in disbelief and thinks _what the heck is going on here?_

Well, I think this Terracollage videos are an equivalent of those odd [ASMR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASMR) effect videos. Probably kids watching adults looking at Nature timelapses wonder the same way about how odd the older generation is.

> Human beings are odd assets: they acquire the value the moment somebody believes in them.
> -- [Venkatesh Rao/The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/)

# 3 weeks of Mastodon@QOTO

So it's 3 weeks since I joined Mastodon@QOTO. My motivation was a low threshold scrapbook place were I can throw whatever I want to remember and/or share with friends.

After these couple of weeks, I can say this:
* works - kind of. Feels a bit weird, probably because I never did this kind of stuff in public before
* obviously what I am doing is not very standard (more than 200 chars), but within the design envelope of Mastodon and QOTO (kudos for all the customisations, I like it!)
* probably what I am doing would be better called mini-blogging (more than Twitter, less than a blog). When called this way, I took a look at services which do that (e.g., Tumblr) and the usage pattern fits
* timelines are somewhat distracting, but I'll try to use this in a somewhat introvert mode anyway
* interactions are not a bad part of the experience, but need to be managed - can be easily distracting
* lots of strange stuff fly around, but can be filtered out when needed
* the images people post are a throwback into 90's when we were sending this via e-mail (I still have a couple of GBs in my mailbox archive just funny pics and powerpoint slidedecks full of one-off jokes). Since I left this subculture, I never thought it still clogs the Intertubes elsewhere. Still fun, but I could do without.
* tooling: Tusky proved useful, `toot` is good too, web interface a bit overwhelming and distracting
* still need to work out how to deal with hashtags - probably will ignore

#note

# ROKR wooden 3D puzzles

Very nice wooden cut-out puzzles to assemble. Some of their models are just to assemble, but some are mechanically functional pieces. I find it very exciting. This is a bookmark for future reference. Useful as gifts for my future self :-).

* [ROKR Company page](https://rokrpuzzles.com/)
* they have a Amazon webshop

# Brandolini's law

A.k.a. **bullshit asymmetry principle**

> The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it.

It is a very succinct version of what one can feel even physically when faced with piles of crap people occasionally dump in discussions, especially on Intertubes. The crap is often even produced unwittingly and with honest, if misguided intentions (e.g., I am smarter then you, therefore I must be right - many really believe that, so there's not really any ill intent in arguing that way). Yet, the stuff still remains just that - a pile of dung.

Further, the corresponding [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law) adds the Lopatnikov's version:

> If the text of each phrase requires a paragraph (to disprove), each paragraph - a section, each section - a chapter, and each chapter - a book, the whole text becomes effectively irrefutable and, therefore, acquires features of truthfulness. _I define such truthfulness as transcendental._

In the past my younger and in the art of bullshit fighting less experienced self tried to push against this, only to always end up exhausted and frustrated. Now I just walk away. It's not a satisfactory outcome, as the bullshitter gets their way, but it's at least productive - as in not preventing my own further productive moves. Emotionally, I simply accept that in the long-term non-bullshit prevails - simply because **_reality has a weight and a vast momentum. It moves slowly, but you don't get to stop it. You can slow it down with vast magnitudes of energy, but never for too long._**

If in the discussion I was right, the reality will eventually prevail and whether the bullshitter learns about it or not does not matter a zilch. What matters is whether I learn something new or not. If I was wrong myself (which happens a lot!), by keeping my mind open, sooner or later, the reality (or a series of other discussions) will fix my own opinions. But I will avoid one thing: dealing with the bullshitting discussion partner. I call that a net gain.

Of course, sometimes it happens that the bullshitter crushes or harms you in the real world before the reality's truthful nature catches up (e.g., you might be actually right, but what does that matter if you are dead/in jail/lost your property/reputation/etc.). One needs defences outside of argumentation techniques to mitigate this specific risk.

And further [Gish gallop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop):
> [eristic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eristic "Eristic") technique in which a [debater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate "Debate") attempts to overwhelm an opponent by excessive number of arguments, without regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments.

That's what we could witness with Trump for the last few years.

# &Tilly - Afterwars

https://youtu.be/vtfJclYFcIc

Viktor!

#music

# # Empathy vs. Sympathy

[Brené Brown on Empathy vs. Sympathy/Psychology Today](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/partnering-in-mental-health/201408/bren-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy-0)

The little cartoon movie in the article puts it in a very very nice and understandable manner.

> _empathy_ fuels connection
> _sympathy_ drives disconnection

> empathy:
> 1. perspective taking
> 2. staying out of judgement
> 3. recognising emotion in other people, and
> 4. communicating it

It does not have to be necessarily too bad.

> but i'll grow up to be just like you, yeah
> -- [Krezip/I would stay](https://youtu.be/1W2iksJ9Tc4)

Sometimes you meet a young person who is very well aware of their parent being an example they (want to) follow. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I wanted to be anything but like my dad. With years and (ever) growing number of failures forward, I recognise him in myself more and more. And I like it that way more and more too.

# ACM Fellows 2020 announcements

[Press release](https://awards.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/press-releases/2021/january/fellows-2020.pdf)

Very nice to see many outstanding scientists from broader community around intelligent agents and multi-agent systems (formal logics, knowledge representation & reasoning, planning and robotics) recognised this year.

# Timing matters when correcting fake news

An interesting aticle in PNAS: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/5/e2020043118 / [DOI]([https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020043118](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020043118))

## Objective
> Countering misinformation can reduce belief in the moment, but corrective messages quickly fade from memory. We tested whether the longer-term impact of fact-checks depends on when people receive them.

## Conclusions

> Providing fact-checks after headlines (_debunking_) improved subsequent truth discernment more than providing the same information during (_labeling_) or before (_prebunking_) exposure.

> (debunking) reduced misclassification of headlines 1 wk later by 25.3%, compared to an 8.6% reduction when tags appeared during exposure (labeling), and a 6.6% increase or 5.7% reduction when tags appeared beforehand (prebunking).

This is interesting. My guess would be that labelling would work the best. I thought that when the information is "baked into the memory" of a person, it's harder to change.

Perhaps, post-fact debunking/knowledge revision actually has a more profound effect on an individual because if it works, it probably does not only fix the incorrect information received, but also stains the source from where the person received it.

Still, it's notable that while the effect of fact-checking was significant, by far it did not have the effect most people would hope for: once you learn that what you believed was wrong, you fix yourself - i.e., 100% success rate. For false information, debunking it later fixed only a minority of misinformation cases.

They used Amazon Mechanical Turk for the experiment, so it might also be there are some biases stemming from self-selection of the participants.

# Salamander growing from a single cell

> Filmmaker Jan van IJken's Becoming reveals the fascinating genesis of animal life. A single cell is transformed into a complete, complex living organism with a beating heart and running bloodstream. Observe the stages of development that occur within an Alpine newt embryo (Ichthyosaura alpestris) in this fascinating six minute time-lapse captured over a three week period.

A direct Youtube link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEejivHRIbE&feature=youtu.be

# To Fight Misinformation, We Must Think Like Scientists

> Logical reasoning and theory testing can protect against fake news.

Here I can't stress **theory testing** enough. The world is full of theorists (including myself!), but we are not checking our ideas against reality often enough. Even in small ways, like this article reminds us, just against one's own recent experiences. Most snake oil gets revealed that way.

> 1. We must be empiricists, not ideologues
> 2. We must create tests
> 3. We must encourage others to be empiricists

My speculation is that why people don't engage in such little experiments is due to 1. their laziness;
2. this sort of stuff is difficult to do on your own. It's way easier to do this in a conversation with [oneself, or with others](https://qoto.org/@FailForward/105531544314397677).
3. when the findings of such a process do not align with one's own theories and ideologies, it's better to close our eyes and just move on. Partly this is because of fear of losing face - once we espouse our favourite theories to our social circle, it might be embarrassing to retract them when they turn incorrect.

All this is because we all love neat worlds. Ideas and theories around them are pure, clean and "just work", while the reality outside is messy, colourful and complicated.

@Pat

# Vacuum cleaner for earth and sand

In the street where I live, the city is replacing water pipes. This is a standard digging operation, no surprises expected.

Now this morning they brought in a huge vacuum cleaner [like this](https://youtu.be/6872V30F12M) using which they sucked out the earth around roots of trees - instead of using shovels, or maybe just carelessly going in with an excavator.

Technology advances never stop to surprise me. I find the idea quite cool, yet so obvious to every child.

# Floor Jansen - Let It Go (Frozen) REMASTERED

https://youtu.be/plFqA0NMzds

And now old farts and Metalheads are going to discover the joys of Disney.

#music

HAEVN Live in Carré - 06 Piano Interlude + Sinner Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqX1O0lk3i8

#music