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mirandamckenni1 · 5 months

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Lies you've been told about Taylor Swift. Is her private jet REALLY such a problem? How much attention should we be paying to her romantic life? If she's a billionaire, can we still love her? Let's discuss... /// SUPPORT /// JOIN THE GUMPTION CLUB: https://ift.tt/SV7DJiB Being in the club means you get: a free weekly podcast, access to a secret facebook group, a free poetry collection and play written by me, access to livestreams AND you get to access to all my videos before anyone else sees them! CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP - for those lovely people who don't want to use Patreon and aren't bothered about the patreon perks, but who'd like to buy me a drink as a thank you for the free videos... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqf-UHCeCSd0BqoxxrDv8g/join Nab yourself a POSITIVE PANIC PATCH: https://ift.tt/aXr9tPM ORDER my poetry collection, BARGAIN BIN ROM-COM! https://ift.tt/3LfWiP1 // SOURCES // Taylor’s recent record breaking: https://ift.tt/McdS9Xy. The barbie movie clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6crCnOhS8&ab_channel=baBoom Olivia Rodrigo Deja Vu / Cruel Summer Comparison (the song Taylor demanded credit for): https://youtu.be/kS3ktXuYeE0?si=S2cUoU2WNYdvTaGU&t=85 Taylor & Katie Perry: https://youtu.be/szp-gz9ZL78?si=n2dVhyt09K73jQ8a Material Girls podcast: https://ift.tt/qWC8Hba Book I quote at the end: Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer Post about billionaires & monkeys: https://ift.tt/V38oJDT Sources around carbon use: https://ift.tt/ULzwFbA. https://ift.tt/i9Yy6Go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBBsv0QyscE&ab_channel=GuardianNews https://ift.tt/c1C4xtz. https://ift.tt/T4q1rOA https://ift.tt/xahoY1L // COME AND HANG WITH ME IN BETWEEN UPLOADS // Listen to my podcast, NO BOOKS ON A DEAD PLANET: https://ift.tt/Ws16ZPT IF NEWSLETTERS ARE YOUR THING, sign up to get a little letter in your inbox from me once in a while! As a thank you for signing up, you’ll get a FREE downloadable list of my best books of all time: https://ift.tt/lw76Aov INSTAGRAM: https://ift.tt/wMNgcY1 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/leenanorms I use Octopus Energy which are a clean green sustainable energy company - if you're in the UK and are curious, here are the two videos I talk about them in: https://youtu.be/O0TR7RvVRlI and https://youtu.be/IEqf94lb44U And here's my referral link if you'd like to get £50 off (I get £50 off too, woo!) https://ift.tt/3ScEV6x All music used is licensed through Epidemic Sound - I've been using them for years and hand-on-heart it's really fab. You get unlimited use of their music per month for a pretty bargain fee. Here's my referral link (if you sign up through it I get a free month): https://ift.tt/pLqICYl If you're a company that makes plastic-free products, pays their tax and doesn't exploit people, I'd love to hear from you if you'd like to sponsor the channel: [email protected] via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn_xkPt1Ouc

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acosmiceducation · 9 months

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Optical Illusions – They’re more than just fun

Can you agree with others?

In 2015 the internet became enamoured with “the dress”. This one:

Is it blue and black? Or white and gold? One group fiercely claimed the dress was blue and black and were seemingly unable to see how it could be interpreted as white and gold. The other half fiercely claimed the dress was white and gold, unable to see any blue and black in it whatsoever. Debate and discourse ensued. But who was right?

Can you agree with rationality?

Here is another illusion:

In this well-known illusion the viewer is instructed to focus on the colour/shade of the marked squares “A” and “B”. Believe it or not, they are in fact the exact same shade of grey but you will likely need to cover up the rest of the image to see it. Here is an image that will help:

Here is an even more striking example:

Believe it or not the brown square in the middle of the top face of the Rubik’s Cube and the orange square in the middle of the front face that is in shadow are in fact the exact same colour. Again if you don’t believe me, cover up everything else in the image except for those two squares.

Even when you know the correct colours of the squares there is seemingly nothing you can do to see it the correct way when you look at the image with its full context.

Can you agree with yourself?

The third type of illusion I want to explore is one where it is possible to interpret it in multiple ways but never more than one way at a time. Take the famous “Brainstorm/Green Needle” audio illusion that became popular a few years back. Here is a link of it. Check it out for yourself and then come back here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXxV2C1ri2k&ab_channel=GuardianNews

Most people should be able to hear either “Brainstorm” or “Green Needle” and what you hear is entirely based on what you concentrate on prior to the sound playing. It is also very difficult or perhaps impossible to hear both phrases simultaneously.

What does this mean?

Many people, including perhaps yourself may claim to see the world objectively, or “you see the world as it is”. You might describe yourself as pragmatic, or rational. Before I eloquently burst your bubble, let’s come to some definition of what the “real” world really is. Defining it could be discussed at book-length, but for now I will say this:

The real world, for the purposes of this article, is the world in its raw physical form as described by the laws of physics. That is, a real image is the unique combination of photons that interact with said image. A real sound is the unique combination of air particles that vibrate in accordance to the vibrating object that stimulates them. This is to be taken as completely independent from human emotion, bias, interpretation and thought.

Every image our eyes take in is interpreted by our brains and (as far as I know) there is nothing we can do about that. It is therefore impossible for a human to see an object for how it truly is. To prove this, look no further than the illusions provided above.

Beau Lotto who studies illusions like this and gave a Ted Talk about them describes how our visual perception evolved to interpret the world in a way that was useful in the past, not how it actually is. It turns out it isn’t useful for our survival to see the world how it actually is. To show this, take another look at the Rubik’s Cube illusion and take note how your brain interprets colour it believes is in shadow compared to how it interprets colour it perceives to be directly illuminated. In reality, the colour reflecting off an object varies drastically compared to if it is in shadow vs in direct sunlight.

Borrowing an example from neuroscientist Anil Seth, if you look at a blank white sheet of paper indoors it will look white to you. If you take the same sheet of paper outside under direct sunlight it will also look white to you. But if you took a picture of the paper in both situations and then held the photos next to each other you would see the papers as different colours. This concept is known as white-balancing and is something your brain does automatically. In fact, this is one solution for the dress debate that Seth describes. Different people have slightly different white-balancing mechanisms and it is possible that the image of the dress – given its colours and background – has reached a perfect sweet spot for one group of people to white-balance the image more than the other group of people such that they actually see a completely different set of colours inside their brains.

Allow me to suggest a potential reason why white-balancing in humans may have been useful in the past. If you are living as a hunter-gatherer in a band of 100 humans on the African savannah it would be very important for your survival to be able to quickly recognize the members of your tribe and distinguish them against other humans from rival tribes. Imagine you are conversing with your compatriot Adim, under the shade of a tree. If you both move into the sunlight you will of course still see that the person you are conversing with is your friend Adim. In reality the appearance of the colour of his skin will have changed dramatically as you moved from the shade to the sun, so much so that if you saw colour exactly as it is, you might even begin to doubt that the person under the sunlight is not the same person you saw in the shade. Even if there was a 0.1% chance that you got alarmed at the change in appearance of Adim you might mistake him for a member of a rival tribe increasing your likelihood of lashing out. There is no situation where that would be useful for survival so our evolution made it so your brain balances the light to view Adim as having the same skin colour regardless of his setting.

Another solution to the dress

Here is one study that attempted to explain the dress phenomenon: https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2617976

One of the arguments made in this study was that your chronotype (the time you prefer to go to bed) has an influence on what colours you see in the dress image. The study found that night owls – people who prefer to stay up late – are more likely to see the dress as black and blue. Vice versa morning larks – people who prefer to sleep and wake up early – are more likely to see the dress as white and gold. This is not a perfect correlation, there is plenty of overlap but it is an interesting explanation.

The reason for this suggested by the paper is that people see the dress one way due to assumptions they are making about the lighting conditions in the image. Night owls tend to spend more of their time indoors under artificial lighting and so they’d assume that the dress is lit artificially (that is with light bulbs as opposed to the sun). Artificial light is quite orange/yellow in colour and so if you assume the dress is artificially lit your brain will filter out those colours to attempt to see the true colours of the dress, black and blue.

Alternatively, according to the paper morning larks will assume the dress is lit by the sun. Sunlight has a lot of blue in it so your brain will attempt to filter out the blue in the image to attempt to see the true colours of the dress, white and gold.

This is an interesting interpretation and I’d encourage you to read the full study yourself. The correlations are not completely convincing but perhaps are one reason to explain such a fascinating phenomenon.

You only hear what you want to hear

Have you ever been in a room filled with people with multiple conversations happening simultaneously? Parties are good examples here. Heard from a distance they can sound like gibberish, but if you are in the party it is possible to listen and focus on just one conversation. It is also possible to switch your focus to a completely different conversation. It is also nearly impossible to focus on and make sense of both conversations at the same time. Our brain seems to have a built-in mechanism for selective listening. This is a great tool in situations such as parties, otherwise you might be faced with an overwhelming wall of noise unable to understand what anyone is saying unless everyone else shuts up. The Brainstorm/Green Needle audio illusion is a more controlled version of this phenomenon.

This proves that you can literally hear what you choose to hear. But can this concept be taken further? How many times have you been in conversation with someone only to zone out part way and only hear a portion of the words they said? Or how about hearing all the words someone said but interpreting it differently from them? That is a fascinating concept to explore altogether which I will touch on more below. For now, the fact that two people can be presented with not just the same image, but also the same sound and lead to completely different conclusions just further emphasizes that you don’t see the world for “how it is”. You begin to realize that the world is constructed in your mind.

We evolved to interpret the world in a way that was useful in the past, not how it actually is

That fact, (stated above) implies one of the most profound aspects of being human. That is, an insight that is not obvious to most people, yet proven by the illusions shown above, and has numerous implications in many other areas of life. To me, the first obvious other area is politics. It is no wonder we can’t agree on simple political notions when we live in a world where two groups of people can’t even agree on the colour of a dress. Even when presented with identical information different people interpret the information in different ways. Add in the fact that on debates like climate change, abortion, and universal health care people on all sides can choose to ignore certain pieces of information, it is no wonder we can’t seem to collectively come to agreements on these issues.

We all see the world slightly differently

Some of us see black and blue, some see white and gold. Going further, people have different tolerances for temperature, conflict, cognitive capacity, levels of empathy, physical strength, and past traumas. People live in different parts of the world, have different educations, have different spiritual beliefs, among countless more dimensions of uniqueness. All these things combined makes every human unique and in turn, means that every human sees the world differently.

Semantics, word meanings, is the first level you need to agree on if you are conversing with someone. Let’s take a crude example. Here are a bunch of images of chairs or things resembling chairs:

Which ones of these are chairs and which ones are not? The red one? Most people would agree it is a chair. What about the one next to it? It doesn’t have a back. Does a char need to have a back? What about the one made out of grass? It has a back but it is not made of “traditional” chair materials and is not easily moveable. What about the turquoise one (middle left). Is it too wide to be a chair? Does that make it a sofa? How wide does something need to be before it is no longer considered a char and is a sofa instead? The facetious (or realists) among you may say none of them are chairs, they’re only pictures.

Do any of these questions have clear answers? Most importantly, a group of individuals will certainly not agree on all the answers. In a similar fashion to the disagreement about the dress, our different physiologies and life experiences will cause us to have different definitions of seemingly trivial everyday objects such as chairs. And most of the time, we aren’t aware of this. We are not aware that we have different definitions of what a chair is compared to others, but perhaps even more importantly we are likely unaware that our own definition of what a chair is not well-defined. You might say, “I just know a chair when I see one”, well what about the examples I shared above. Why do you consider some of them chairs and not others? What if someone else who claims to be as logical as you comes up with different answers. Is one of you delusional? Are you both delusional? Is your definition of what a chair is really based on rigid logic, or is it based on feelings, on emotions?

I’m not suggesting that not having a precise definition of a chair is inherently a bad thing in all circumstances but in extreme situations such as debating big decisions that will affect the future of humanity, if you are unaware that you define words differently from your opponents or collaborators then how effective are you going to be at decision making? The young people of today are one day going to be making big decisions that affect the future of the billions of humans on Earth, the trillions of non-human animals and how we take them into the future. If we are to create a future that addresses the biggest concerns we face today such as climate change, wealth disparity, animal and human suffering, and averting nuclear destruction we need to teach the children (and adults) of today that on a fundamental level, any two people do not see the world in the same way. And what better medium to introduce that concept than optical and audio illusions?

A new meaning for humility

The world has proven – as with the dress – that even when given the exact same information we are led to completely different solutions, even when the solutions are trivial. That fact calls for a new emphasis on humility when it comes to worldview and opinions in general. I know how easy it is to get hot-headed and annoyed at people who don’t see the world the way you do. I feel that I am right and anyone who doesn’t agree with me is wrong. So many people are delusional it seems. But as the dress and other optical illusions show, humility is the only response to approach conflict with others that will lead to the most peace and love in the world. That is not to say that 100% of worldviews should be tolerated. If someone’s worldview is one that involves violence or oppression, I’d say it is valid to move beyond humility and attempt to cease the violence. But again, that is just my interpretation of the world. At the same time, don’t assume there is such a thing as objective good and evil. Every villain is the hero of their own story. I’m starting to get into the realm of moral relativism which is an adjacent and equally fascinating topic. But that will be explored another time. For now just don’t assume that you have it all figured out.

Thank you for reading! Go to my site for more! https://acosmiceducation.com

#illusion #optical illusion #the dress

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news247worldpressposts · 1 year

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#Breaking: #Saudis ask to join #UK, #Italy and #Japan’s joint #aircombat programme

Saudis ask to join UK, Italy and Japan’s joint air combat programme https://t.co/TQEJTzBY4v — Guardian news (@guardiannews) August 11, 2023 Source: Twitter

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grad603-kaynetic · 1 year

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Speaker Research - Chlöe Swarbrick

Speech video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJsPXrEqCI&ab_channel=GuardianNews

Chlöe Swarbrick is a member for Auckland Central, Green Party. She is a member of the 52nd and 53rd Parliaments. Her current role is in Finance and Expenditure since the 2nd of December 2020. Swarbrick is a spokes person for a number of things such as, animal welfare, Broadcasting and Media, and Mental Health to name some. Swarbrick, at age 23, was the youngest politician to enter Parliament in New Zealand since Marilyn Waring in 1975.

Early Life:

Swarbrick was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1994. She lived in Papau New Guinea with her dad for 17 months.

Adult Life:

Swarbrick joined the University of Auckland at 17,

She began working in a newsroom at a student radio as a writer and newsreader until eventually becoming the producer and host of The Wire. She resigned in 2016. In 2014, she wrote a piece for the “What's Good” magazine and in 2015, Swarbrick launched “The Goods” an offshoot of “Whats Good”.

Swarbrick has been the founder and owner of quite a few different start-ups and businesses. Swarbrick, along with Alex Bartley Catt, opened a New Zealand fashion label called “The Lucid Collective” in 2012 which is now closed. In 2016, they launched a digital consultancy and artist management agency called “TIPS”. They also opened a café and galley, “Olly”, which is now permanently closed.

The achievements of Chlöe Swarbrick have been noticed by many and appreciated. Swarbrick was featured on Fortunes 40 under 40 list in 2020, and a documentary about Swarbrick’s political career and background was released in 2020, named Ok Chlöe. She has also received awards that celebrate local heroes, and recognize individuals who demonstrated dedication to the prosperity of animals, people, or the planet through their work.

https://fortune.com/2020/09/02/40-under-40-fortune-young-people-in-tech-media-finance-politics-health-industry/

Links:

https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/members-of-parliament/swarbrick-chloe/

https://www.greens.org.nz/chloe_swarbrick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_Aotearoa_New_Zealand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chl%C3%B6e_Swarbrick

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/world/117298243/the-world-is-obsessed-with-chle-swarbricks-ok-boomer-jibe

#week7 #speaker

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news24fr · 2 years

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La mort du virtuose du football brésilien Pelé, à l'âge de 82 ans, fait la une des journaux du monde entier vendredi.Le Gardien porte une image de la star assise sur les épaules de ses coéquipiers et de ses fans après la victoire du Brésil lors de la finale de la Coupe du monde de 1970 à Mexico.Richard Williams écrit qu'il était "un joueur qui a offert ses compétences au monde entier".Première page du Guardian, vendredi 30 décembre 2022 : Un pair conservateur sur 10 a donné plus de 100 000 £ au parti pic.twitter.com/UwOA3FviNR– Nouvelles du gardien (@guardiannews) 29 décembre 2022 L'un des principaux journaux brésiliens, Ô Globo, a imprimé quatre éditions sans précédent, avec différentes couvertures marquant différents moments de la carrière de Pelé. Le titre du journal se lit simplement « Pelé Eterno » – en anglais, « Pelé Eternal ».ADEUS AO REI | Em homenagem a Pelé, O GLOBO terá edição inédita com quatro capas qu'ilustram grands moments do Rei. Faça download das Primeiras Páginas nas versões Copas de 1958, 1962, 1970 e 1.000 gols: https://t.co/JVQ4FQBUkn pic.twitter.com/3WnW9WhV9V– Jornal O Globo (@JornalOGlobo) 29 décembre 2022 l'Espagne El País dit "Au revoir à Pelé, 'le roi' du football" avec une image de cette victoire emblématique de la Coupe du monde en 1970.#Portada | Alerta por violencia machista : 13 asesinadas en décembre ; Adiós a Pelé, 'O Rei' del fútbol; Rusia lanza uno de los mayores ataques contra infraestructuras en Ucrania, en EL PAÍS este viernes 30 de diciembre 🔗 https://t.co/UrxPhJwS24 pic.twitter.com/N9feqeaI4H— EL PAÍS (@el_pais) 29 décembre 2022 Quotidien sportif français L'Équipe adopte les couleurs brésiliennes en première page. Avec une image pleine page d'un jeune Pelé, le journal dit "C'était un roi".Stupéfiant @lequipe première page, changeant les couleurs des titres en brésiliens. « Pelé. C'était un roi" pic.twitter.com/kx0DeVXSFa– Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) 29 décembre 2022 Le Miroiter porte également une image de Pelé célébrant la Coupe du monde 1970 et l'appelle "Le meilleur". Le journal écrit que "le monde salue le génie 'divin' qui a rendu le football beau".La première page de vendredi : Le meilleur #TomorrowsPapersAujourd'hui https://t.co/zW06jfZafH pic.twitter.com/rSGIFq1TI6– Le miroir (@DailyMirror) 29 décembre 2022 la France Libération porte une image pleine page de Pelé, disant : « Le mythique footballeur brésilien et triple champion du monde est décédé jeudi à l'âge de 82 ans ».A la une de @Libe ce vendredi : ⚫ Pelé, Séléciao #Peléhttps://t.co/nj2k4mQp7h pic.twitter.com/7CVw2Pl9JR— Libération (@libe) 29 décembre 2022 l'Ecosse Enregistrement quotidient l'appelle la "Mort d'une légende". Le journal écrit que le monde du sport est "en deuil", car le seul homme à avoir soulevé trois fois le trophée de la Coupe du monde décède.La première page de demain mène à Pelé. La mort d'une légende.#scotpapers #tomorrowspapersaujourd'hui @sgfmann pic.twitter.com/cuCkDpjlB3- Le record quotidien (@Daily_Record) 29 décembre 2022 Enfin, le Sun affirme que "Lineker, Mbappe rendent hommage" alors que le "Roi du football" meurt.Le soleil du vendredi : le roi du football #TomorrowsPapersAujourd'hui #Le soleil #Soleil pic.twitter.com/6zfdxhMTEy– Les papiers de demain aujourd'hui (@TmorrowsPapers) 29 décembre 2022

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