Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.

Category: Aux

Pop culture today is obsessed with the battle between good and evil. Traditional folktales never were. What changed?

“Good guy/bad guy narratives might not possess any moral sophistication, but they do promote social stability, and they’re useful for getting people to sign up for armies and fight in wars with other nations. Their values feel like morality, and the association with folklore and mythology lends them a patina of legitimacy, but still, they don’t arise from a moral vision. They are rooted instead in a political vision, which is why they don’t help us deliberate, or think more deeply about the meanings of our actions. Like the original Grimm stories, they’re a political tool designed to bind nations together.” [c/o LinkMachineGo] #link

###

Mental Floss: 28 Weird and Wonderful Irish Words

I wouldn’t go by their pronunciation guide (the language can be spoken with considerable difference depending on what part of the country you’re in) but this is a nice appreciation of Irish vocabulary. I wish I spoke Irish, but school ruined that for me, and I have no drive to learn it now. #link

###

Olly’s videos, like this one, are excellent stuff — and indeed represent Kant’s moral philosophy in praxis. #video

###

Learn To Code Now

I’ve still got the basics down, but I could do with something like this as a refresher course. #link

###

What do Irish people consider their date of independence?

1916 is when independence was declared. When was it achieved? Arguably, as a society, we’re not quite there yet. I think back to history class in school, reading about how Irish unionists dismissed Parnell with the slogan ‘Home rule is Rome rule’; sectarianism aside, they were right. #link

###

An hour in the driver’s seat from Nagano to Kanazawa by Shinkansen bullet train. This is my jam. (Be advised: there are a lot of tunnels along the first half of the journey.) #video

###

The spectacular power of Big Lens

There’s a lot to unpack here: the portrait of Luxottica's founder as the Vince McMahon of the spectacle frame world; rising rates of myopia tied to lack of sunlight and tech-related dopamine hits; the world at the mercy of an optics giant that “can choose to interpret its mission more or less however it wants”. #link

###

What perfectly normal food can you just not stand?

I would quibble with pith as a ‘perfectly normal food’ (if you’re not avoiding the pith when you eat citrus, you’re doing it wrong). Other than that, this mostly leaves me thinking about how much my palate has changed over the last few years. Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was That Guy who lived on starch and didn’t touch fruit or veg; I still don’t really eat fruit (it’s a texture and tartness thing for me) but I’m game for most vegetables now, provided they’re properly prepared and in the right combinations. (For instance, raw tomato is not appealing — but slice it, salt it, put it in a sandwich or on a burger? I’m good.) #link

###

Letting neural networks be weird

Machine learning, unconstrained from the memes or tropes or expectations of human empirical understanding, produces what can best be appreciated as accidental art as it strives to compute a formula for the human mind. If you want to put it in a philosophical way, like. This also reminds me of something I read last year on the phenomenon of Afghan war rugs, and how the iconography divorced from context results in a similar semiotic clash — yet one produced by human beings, not computers. (I couldn’t find the source for that, but Phil Gyford just blogged about it. Serendipity!) #link

###

The Weird Science Behind Chain Restaurant Menus

It’s not all that weird, unless you were naive enough to think your favourite mom-and-pop-feeling chain wasn’t decided upon down to the last detail. Maybe it also feels uncomfortable to think of oneself as an individual while at the same time fitting a little too neatly into a brand’s demographic classification, like a negation of individuality? No sweat; it’s as much in their heads as it is in yours. And I’d be more worried about Facebook doing it than a ‘fast casual dining experience’. #link

###

Wired: The Nintendo King and the Midlife Crisis

Not as sad a tale as you might expect, though it does raise questions as to what creative people in the digital realm will do when time goes on. What will we all do, in fact, as the notion of work changes from security to mere sustainability? #link

###

Why wouldn’t you vote Yes?

This article really bothers me, and I think it’s mostly to do with couching the movement to repeal the 8th Amendment in terms of ‘debate’ as suits the No side, which in the case of this campaign should be taken in the competitive sense: an art of persuasion, irrespective of facts.

The author, Colleen Brady, writes: “At the minute I feel as though there is no unbiased information readily available for the public. From where I am looking, the information available to people is either swayed one way or another.”

The thing is, this isn’t the Lisbon Treaty. It’s a healthcare issue, it’s a social issue, an awkward negotiation of complex needs. Looking for some kind of elusive, singular ‘objectivity’ is a fool’s errand. There are facts about particular aspects, and there are lies and untruths about same, and that’s all we can deal with. More…

###

Seedship

A text-based adventure (made with Twine) guiding an interstellar spacecraft full of colonists to a new home. #link

###

The Great Awokening: What happens to culture in an era of identity politics?

“[Sensitivity] to the experiences of racial, cultural, sexual, and gender identities besides one’s own, and [being] attuned to the injustices that shape our world” is the best definition I’ve seen for the concept of ‘woke’, and this is a good essay about the related societal shift. It is ironic, though, that this article has since been affected by the very shifts it examines; that section about Aziz Ansari’s Master of None doesn’t sit too comfortably today next to the excoriation of Louis CK. #link

###

Google Maps’ Moat

This is incredible stuff. But I’m not the only one given pause by the scale of detail here, am I? #link

###

HTML Color Codes

Everything you always wanted to know about colours for the web in one handy, beautifully designed spot. #link

###

Hiragana and Katakana quiz

I’m (very slowly) learning Japanese with Duolingo, and this is a great resource to keep fresh on the relevant alphabets. Maggie Sensei is another source for info, when I’m ready to step up my game. (Not any time soon.) #link

###