You've heard the phrase "try not to think about an elephant." It is impossible to achieve, because the word elephant implants that concept in our heads, despite the word "not" that we understand. Understanding that negative word in context and obeying the sentence is two very different things, and artificial intelligence has not mastered the idea of negation. It's a good thing that humans can separate uncontrolled thoughts from controlled actions, because we can draw a room without putting an elephant in it -and even when it's there, we can ignore it. But maybe that's taking the elephant analogy too far.
Dr. Erica Brozovski explains negation and the words we use for it in English. We don't always use these words correctly, but we understand them and we can usually parse what someone is saying to us even when the words are misused, as in double and triple negatives.
Sunday, April 06, 2025
Language Negation
Tariffs
You can easily guess the subject of Saturday Night Live's opening skit every week, since it's simple a rehash of the ridiculous news of the week. And the jokes write themselves. This week it's tariffs that make no sense and Elon Musk's attempt to buy a state election. His glitching out was a nice touch.
Twerking Cat
You've seen how your cat gets ready to pounce on prey, whether real or toy: the head drops, the eyes dilate, and the hindquarters go into windup mode. Here we see Pusic (previously) putting that response to work. Shake that booty! Pusic's people spend a lot of time editing his voluminous video clips to bring you such entertaining productions. The soundtrack really makes it.
Saturday, April 05, 2025
Tariff of the Penguins
President Trump has levied tariffs on all the countries of the world (except Russia), and that includes places that have no exports, or even people. Heard Island and McDonald Islands were specifically mentioned, even though they are only populated by penguins. Sounds like an important subject for a nature documentary. (via Nag on the Lake)
PSVR
Passover, or Pesach, is April 12 through the 20th this year. The Jewish a cappella group Six13 has released their annual Passover pop parody song, and this one is set to the tune of "Apt." by Rosé and Bruno Mars. They call it "PSVR." This video tells of the exodus from Egypt that was the origin of Passover and describes the seder meal, and actually makes a lot more sense than the Rosé song.
Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?
Eugene Romanovsky finally decided to sell his 1996 Suzuki Vitara. He made an ad for the car that you will enjoy. Yeah, you want to buy this car after seeing the ad, but Romanovsky lives in Israel. I can't read Hebrew, so I don't know how fast it sold. (via reddit)
Friday, April 04, 2025
Minoule
Minoule is an urban cat who discovers that there's a canary living in the building across the street. He takes grave risks to get that bird, and along the way, a lot of other things are going on in the city. The canary and a guitar-playing cat on the roof provide a fine soundtrack to this wordless French production by Nicolas Bianco-Levrin. (via The Kid Should See This)
What If the Earth Were Rotated 90°?
In the What If? video series, Randall Munroe of XKCD and Henry Reich of MinutePhysics look into wild theoretical questions, no matter how stupid they are. Now, we know that the earth rotates 360° every day. But this question is about rotating it in a different direction, changing its orientation completely. To see what would happen, they theoretically made the Greenwich Meridian into the equator. That changes everything, especially the way we see the globe. London is suddenly in the tropics, and India is where Siberia used to be. If this change were to happen gradually, the earth would adapt, but it it were sudden, it could be a extinction event.
Miss Cellania's Links
Trump annoyed the Smithsonian isn’t promoting discredited racial ideas. New executive order slams museum for recognizing "race is not a biological reality."
Winston Churchill and Britain's 'last witch': How a Scottish woman was jailed in 1944 after she 'summoned the dead'... and why the war-time PM was absolutely furious about it. (via Strange Company)
Holy Water Accident Douses Eternal Flame. (via Nag on the Lake)
See the Spectacular Winners of Smithsonian Magazine’s 22nd Annual Photography Contest. There were more than 30,000 entries, and you can see the 60 finalists here.
Dr. Buckland’s Scotch Oats Essence. What a wholesome name for a dangerous patent medicine. (via Strange Company)
This week's links are few and late, because I've been in the hospital. But I'm fine now!
You're Eating at a Buffet Wrong
How do you get your money's worth at a buffet? The Food Network is here to tell us how we've been doing it wrong. See, buffet eating is a zero-sum game, and you have two have a proper strategy to win.
On the other hand, you can decide that eating out is not a competition, but an experience that you pay to enjoy. If you enjoy the food and the experience, then you've won, no matter where you are. If your local buffet restaurant is full of diners trying to "beat the house," the experience will not be great and the food is probably sub-par anyway. Maybe you should patronize a restaurant that gives you the good experience you are paying for. (via Boing Boing)
