Bookmarks

Interesting Links/bookmarks for personal use or sharing with others
Bookmarked How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories by Alex Rosenberg (The MIT Press)

Why we learn the wrong things from narrative history, and how our love for stories is hard-wired.

To understand something, you need to know its history. Right? Wrong, says Alex Rosenberg in How History Gets Things Wrong. Feeling especially well-informed after reading a book of popular history on the best-seller list? Don't. Narrative history is always, always wrong. It's not just incomplete or inaccurate but deeply wrong, as wrong as Ptolemaic astronomy. We no longer believe that the earth is the center of the universe. Why do we still believe in historical narrative? Our attachment to history as a vehicle for understanding has a long Darwinian pedigree and a genetic basis. Our love of stories is hard-wired. Neuroscience reveals that human evolution shaped a tool useful for survival into a defective theory of human nature.

Stories historians tell, Rosenberg continues, are not only wrong but harmful. Israel and Palestine, for example, have dueling narratives of dispossession that prevent one side from compromising with the other. Henry Kissinger applied lessons drawn from the Congress of Vienna to American foreign policy with disastrous results. Human evolution improved primate mind reading―the ability to anticipate the behavior of others, whether predators, prey, or cooperators―to get us to the top of the African food chain. Now, however, this hard-wired capacity makes us think we can understand history―what the Kaiser was thinking in 1914, why Hitler declared war on the United States―by uncovering the narratives of what happened and why. In fact, Rosenberg argues, we will only understand history if we don't make it into a story.

hat tip Jeff Jarvis.

🔖 PHP with MySQL Essential Training: 1 The Basics – Welcome | LinkedIn Learning

Bookmarked PHP with MySQL Essential Training: 1 The Basics - Welcome (LinkedIn Learning)
PHP is a popular programming language and the foundation of many smart, data-driven websites. This comprehensive course from Kevin Skoglund helps developers learn to use PHP to build interconnected webpages with dynamic content which can pass data between pages. Learn how PHP can simplify the creation of forms, read and validate form data, and display errors. Kevin also covers the fundamentals of MySQL and how to use PHP to efficiently and securely interact with a database to store and retrieve data. Throughout the course, he provides practical advice and offers examples of best practices.
Greg, I can’t find it now, but you mentioned something recently (?) about potentially working your way through this course. I’m game to work though it (or something similar) with you if you want to put together a study group…

🔖 An Introduction to Complex Systems: Making Sense of a Changing World​ | Joseph V. Tranquillo | Springer

Bookmarked An Introduction to Complex Systems: Making Sense of a Changing World​ by Joseph V. Tranquillo (Springer)
This book explores the interdisciplinary field of complex systems theory. By the end of the book, readers will be able to understand terminology that is used in complex systems and how they are related to one another; see the patterns of complex systems in practical examples; map current topics, in a variety of fields, to complexity theory; and be able to read more advanced literature in the field. The book begins with basic systems concepts and moves on to how these simple rules can lead to complex behavior. The author then introduces non-linear systems, followed by pattern formation, and networks and information flow in systems. Later chapters cover the thermodynamics of complex systems, dynamical patterns that arise in networks, and how game theory can serve as a framework for decision making. The text is interspersed with both philosophical and quantitative arguments, and each chapter ends with questions and prompts that help readers make more connections.

🔖 Sketchify: Heaps legit links

Bookmarked Sketchify (verylegit.link)

Turn any link into a suspicious looking one

e.g. i.imgur.com/OpYDgt3.gif becomes 666.verylegit.link/warez737speedupurpc.gif.pdf.dmg

Like a URL shortener, but worse

Who needs a shorter link? Not you, my friend. I mean, when you send someone a link, they just click it anyway, so you might as well send 'em a real clanger. This is truly crucial browsing.

Is it safe?

Uhhh well listen I mean it's probably about as safe as a regular URL shortener, but I wouldn't use it for something you're not okay with being randomly redirected to Tinder for Dogs.

Wait so how do I know the link doesn't actually go somewhere dodgy?

You're just gonna have to trust whoever sends it to you.

I want to use this service for my own project

Sure thing. Have a browse of the "documentation" on GitHub.

How does it work?

Due to rapid advancement in dark ritual technology, the programming community has streamlined the development and deployment of unspeakable eldritch horrors. Using robust open-source libraries like a sack of live geese, websites like this one can be developed with far more efficient sacrificial rituals than ever before. We're still stuck on the version with really inefficient sacrifical rituals though, due to comp͆aͭatib̊i̼͕l̈̿i̮̜t̚y̅ ͊i͋s̾s̢͈͠u̶e̛̊s̼̃.

You have to love that they’ve got an API for this…

Who would think that win2003.verylegit.link/GNdHusvKjuK~r~YH,arT-server1337+333resumemobiads=shockwave-flash_.min.js.sh.docm would actually resolve to boffosocko.com?!

🔖 make my link longer

Bookmarked make my link longer (make-my-link-longer.glitch.me)
makes your links longer
Forget about link shorteners, let’s make them longer!!

Want a longer link for BoffoSocko.com? Try https://make-my-link-longer.glitch.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?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=THIS_TOTALLY_UNOBTRUSIVE_CAMPAIGN_NAME&utm_content=some_sad_place_on_the_internet&more_ridiculous_things_in_your_links=because_why_not&maybe_we_can=write_poetry_in_utm_links&utm_utm_utm_utm_utm_param=bye&oh_and_dont_forget_the_facebook_click_id=thanks&fbclid=IwAR0fgPKx3ebuM5dpH3FG8MlCITeSVkGFFeNlQX31Tiu4pmNvAoi_Sw44Knk instead!

Bookmarked Two Towns of Jasper (Vimeo)

In 1998 in Jasper, Texas, James Byrd, Jr., a black man, was chained to a pick-up truck and dragged to his death by three white men. The town was forever altered, and the nation woke up to the horror of a modern-day lynching. In Two Towns Of Jasper, two film crews, one black and one white, set out to document the aftermath of the murder by following the subsequent trials of the local men charged with the crime. The result is an explicit and troubling portrait of race in America, one that asks how and why a crime like this could have occurred. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) and National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) Co-presentation and a Television Race Initiative (TRI) selection.

Hat tip: This was mentioned in Episode 049 – Pop Culture Academia, Screen Time, and Automated Delivery | Media and the End of the World Podcast

🔖 An interview with Mike Monteiro | Clearleft

Bookmarked An interview with Mike Monteiro | Clearleft by Rowena PriceRowena Price (Clearleft)
We caught up with award-winning speaker, author, and co-founder (with Erika Hall) of Mule Design, Mike Monteiro to discuss his background, thoughts on life and work as a designer, and why the business of design is just as important as the craft of it.

🔖 A Designer’s Code of Ethics | Dear Design Student (Medium) | Mike Monteiro

Bookmarked A Designer’s Code of Ethics by Mike MonteiroMike Monteiro (Dear Design Student (Medium))
A designer is first and foremost a human being.
Before you are a designer, you are a human being. Like every other human being on the planet, you are part of the social contract. We share a planet. By choosing to be a designer you are choosing to impact the people who come in contact with your work, you can either help or hurt them with your actions. The effect of what you put into the fabric of society should always be a key consideration in your work.
It would appear that much of this article appears in Monteiro’s book Ruined by Design.
Bookmarked Think Like a Hacker (Wordfence)
Join Mark Maunder for the Think Like a Hacker podcast as he and Kathy Zant cover interesting topics related to WordPress, security and innovation.
Briefly ran into Mark Maunder as I was leaving for the day and he reminded me of WordFence’s podcast.

They’d taped an episode before lunch today with Andy Fragen that I definitely want to catch when it comes out.

👓 Fixing the financial dilemma at the heart of our broken tech industry | Ben Werdmüller

Bookmarked Fixing the financial dilemma at the heart of our broken tech industry by Ben WerdmüllerBen Werdmüller (Ben Werdmüller)

I was recently forwarded Jeffrey Zeldman's piece on A List Apart, Nothing Fails Like Success, on the impact of venture capital on startup business models. At the end, he questions whether the indieweb is a possible answer to the predicament we find ourselves in.

I feel uniquely positioned to answer, because I've been a venture capitalist (at mission-driven accelerator Matter Ventures) and have literally started an indieweb startup, Known. I've also bootstrapped a startup and worked at one that raised hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars.

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