Sunk coast fallacy (sorry)

Atlantis is an underwater city filled with mermaid people. People who can breath underwater anyway. That's at least how Marvel and DC depict Atlantis. Futurama played on that myth but changed it to Atlanta, as in Georgia.

In reality, Plato probably made up Atlantis as an allegory. There's no evidence a continent ever sank, especially one larger than "Asia and Libya combined." Although to be fair, they probably weren't measuring Asia from East Turkey to Eastern Siberia as we do now. 

The possibly connection with the city state of Helike adds an interesting twist. Plato knew about the sinking of Helike of course. But for years it was itself considered a myth, and it's only been found quite recently. The truth is about as wild as the story, overall. 

Polar bear substitute

Not too long ago I saw a video that had been posted on Twitter. A polar bear, in a mad dash to protect its cub from an advancing orca, throws the cub onto the deck of a fishing boat, where the crew swaddle the cub in towels and otherwise provide care. Sweet, if a little fishy. The maker of the video might have gotten away with it if they hadn't gone for a close-up of the cub's face at the end. The cub looks like an abomination unto the Lord, and makes it beyond obvious that the whole thing is AI.

So, how about Iran? This past weekend that was supposed to be the story. The freedom-loving Iranians were rising up against the mullahs. The regime was about to collapse. A brave and sexy protestor was making acts of defiance in the streets of...Canada, it turned out. (About where my mother grew up, in fact.) 

It's all a little late. Twelve years ago, when Obama was still in, you could have done a stage-managed revolution and mostly everyone would have gone along with it. The world has changed. Millions have seen through the Iran thing as the CIA and Mossad doing a color revolution, and would have done so even if Mike Pompeo hadn't come out and said it.

Anyway, if Reza Pahlavi wants to be king, he should storm Tehran himself. He won't earn any respect by sitting on his ass and letting foreign intelligence clear the way for him.

Never forget

 

When I first saw the header for this video I said, "Wow, are they actually playing 'Rain', the song John Lennon wrote for the Beatles?" As it happens, the answer is "no." Or if they are, the tune has been altered beyond recognition. But they are playing something tuneful. I mean, I don't think I could play music that well with my nose. Same goes for pretty much everyone I know.

Gwer

You've probably seen images of the Green Man seen around Britain. A face partly obscured by leaves, both the face and leaves generally rendered in stone.

These are seen on churches, among other places. And they do mark a connection between Christian and pre-Christian England. One thing I hadn't realized was that the name "Green Man" had only been used since 1939, when Lady Raglan published it in an article. Her research on the topic was quite thorough, and though she wasn't a prolific author that article continues to be influential. Before her, Green Man figures were known as "foliage heads." Not as catchy.

A tumbleweed rolls by...

The dead Internet theory has interested me for a while. Certainly the net feels "deader" to me than it did in the first decade of this century. The weirder alcoves, the ones that justified the medium to begin with, have largely disappeared or, worse, been taken over and hollowed out. Automation through AI is a plausible explanation.

One problem with the theory as it is often discussed is that, as in this article, it tends to get mixed up with political concerns involving "misinformation." Misinformation is a slippery term, sometimes used to mean "things I disagree with." Which is not to say that there aren't bad actors manipulating gullible people in regards to politics, or that AI isn't one of their tools. But it's very easy to hit the panic button on this when there really are people out there who support things you oppose.

I suspect the primary purpose of bots is to make it look like the web is still an active, thriving place, rather than a mostly sterile and dull one.

Player piano

 

Some painstaking work must have gone into putting this film together. Still, it winds up having a very playful air. And while you can't see any live human person, there's a feeling of someone being there, someone playing the music. The magic of stop-motion animation.

Made by Carmen D'Avino, who discovered filmmaking as a teenager in the Depression and was a painter as well.

Zapped

I had forgotten how they worked. 

Yesterday I met my downstairs neighbor by the stairwell. We chatted about a few things. She was nice enough to give me an extra flyswatter, as we'd both had recurring problems with the little things and she'd bought two. 

Today I saw a housefly hovering in my bathroom. It flew up to the window over the shower and I swatted at it. Since I hadn't made contact with it, I assumed that it had escaped. But a second later, its body fell into the tub.

I don't enjoy killing flies, and I wish them a peaceful life wherever their natural environment is. However, neither am I going to let it pass as they invade my space, and this is at least a less stressful way of getting rid of them.