The Semi-Regular Tumblr Roundup: (Part 3 of 3)

[cw: food mention, brief religion mention]

My Content

I weighed in on the discussion following episode 3 of this season of The Orville. I also made a silly gif. [cw: spoilers]

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There was a discussion on the properties of biblical angels. I contributed. [Wayback]

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You erased the א, didn’t you.

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Context: In a discussion of why Europeans might percieve rootbeer as tasting like mint toothpaste:

Real sassafras was banned by the FDA in the 1960s, (because of possible carcinogenicity found in mouse studies), so these days, root beer has artificial sassafras flavoring, which usually contains wintergreen in the mix.

That’s probably where they’re getting the idea of “mint”.

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On tumblr, there was a popular post which resulted in autistic people being shocked that neurotypicals don't hear electricity all the time. An anon doubted that there was any correlation:

I guess it’s not impossible the ability to hear it has some kind of correlation with some kind of neuroatypicality, but usually it’s just down to how high your hearing range goes.

Actually, studies have found that autistic people really do hear better, for some measures of ‘better’. For example, we have better pitch discrimination, and better local auditory processing.

More relevantly, a recent study found that autistic people have an increased auditory perceptual capacity compared to neurotypical people. That is to say, neurotypicals can only hear a few things at a time.

So as to the sound of the refrigerator compressor, the failing capacitor in their cell phone charger, the humming of a plasma screen? It’s not that they can’t hear these things because they’re physiologically incapable, per se.

They can’t hear them because they simply don’t notice.

For fun, here’s the most entertaining part of that last study!

“Experiment 2 used a 69 s auditory scene… In [which], four characters can be heard moving around the room and preparing for a party (two women wrapping a present and two men preparing food and drink). After 33 s, an additional male character entered from the back of the room and walked through the scene, passing by the left of the head, continually repeating the phrase ‘‘I’m a gorilla” for 19 s.“

“In the neurotypical group, only 12% of the participants spontaneously mentioned the ‘gorilla’ in response to the first question. In contrast, almost half of the participants in the ASD group (47%) noticed the ‘gorilla’.“

 

In conclusion: Neurotypicals don’t notice the gorilla.

Not Mine

Nine stories of the death of websites [Wayback]

I missed bredlik, so I decided to be the bredlik I wanted to see in the world. [1], [2], [3]

The Very Model of a Good Utilitarian [Wayback]
 

Are Bookmarks an Important Measure of Work Success? [Wayback] An interesting statistical analysis by ao3datafan.

A short story by unknought. [Wayback]

wolffyluna makes a good contribution to the ongoing discussion of censorship with The Utena Test. [Wayback]
Also, a fanart for one of the Amentan fandoms! [Wayback]

Many Wikimedia essays are entertaining, but this one is particularly so.

"The last and most active group of vandals is, unfortunately, overly proud friends and acquaintances of gays and lesbians. While being proud of one's gay acquaintances isn't necessarily a negative characteristic, Wikipedia is not the place to publicly announce a friend's sexual orientation or proclivities. Some examples:

* "BRANDON IS GAY"

* "Judy Anderson is a lesbian!"

Some Wikimedians have postulated that these statements are made by immature childish editors who use it as a derogatory term. Any Wikimedian who thinks about this a little longer will realise that this is extremely unlikely, as being gay is not a negative qualification. A more reasonable conclusion is thus that the writers of these phrases are merely friends of the subject, who are so proud of the sexual orientation of the subjects they feel the need to shout it from the rooftops."

My Little Romanian: Friendship Is Chainsaws

Tolkien and Spiders Georg came up a lot together this month. [1], [2]

 

flaksesomlys points out that if interpreted as Norwegian, the Stargate series logo reads "Star Riddle".

The first video of ball lightning outside the laboratory was captured in 2014. Some random tumblr user manages to get another. [Wayback]

Marshmallow test: poem edition. [Wayback]

Glitter nail-polish is the best tamper-evident seal

 

Immortals, Long Cons, and the Building Fury of the Art History Department [Wayback]

Plantina Jazz does an excellent English rendition of the Sailor Moon theme song.

Consider, the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol. (Or: Why I might some day change my blog title to Error 418: I'm a teapot.)