Best of the internet - April (part 1)
Scheeleâs Green - An interesting history of Victorian Englandâs most popular color, made with deadly arsenic. Lends a new meaning to the phrase âbeauty is pain.â
Bird Noises - Linguistics has a fun way of transcribing all possible human sounds called the International Phonetic Alphabet. Every sound in English and in every other human language has a symbol. Thereâs even a way for writing a kissing sound (itâs a type of click, written as /Ę/). But one thing it doesnât address is --- bird calls???
Beautiful color photography from the 1910s - I love this stuff, and I think itâs beautiful. I used to fantasize about having the free time to teach myself to replicate these old methods of photography. The lighting and coloring just looks so tender and loved.
People can just apply to have their art be put on stamps?!?? * adds new item to to-do list *
DALL-E illustration of Scheele's Green
Selected Wikipedia rabbit holes
Selkies - These are creatures in Irish mythology that are similar to mermaids. They live in the sea as seals, but when they come out of the water, they take the form of a beautiful woman clad in or carrying a sealskin. If they lose their sealskin, however, they can never go back to their home.
Inca quipus - The Inca would record information by tying knots in a cord --- a bit like an early form of binary!
Town and gown relations - This article has a whole section devoted to how residents of New Haven have always had âstrained relationsâ with Yale students, with the occasional stabbing (only in 1854 though) and town residents once threatening to burn down Yale. Reading this article when I was a high school senior who had just applied to Yale immediately removed any trace of worry that I wouldnât get accepted --- after this I wouldnât have wanted to go there anyway.
Blogs
Some blogs I follow and find interesting. Particular articles are selected from each.
Tiramisu.bearblog.dev: an ode to that âcoffee friendâ
Escaping Flatland: Looking for Alice - A philosophical story of a personal journey that I enjoyed wandering down.
Scott Aaronson: If AI intelligence is close to human, letâs not shut it down just to be a bully. - This was a really interesting and original perspective I found on AI that I wanted to share. There are a lot of thinkpieces out there about the dangers/optimism of AI, but this one seemed interesting enough to share.