Zompist Bboard Again

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 3:04 pm Is there any known medical condition that causes one or more of your limbs to feel as if there's a very weak electric current flowing through them?

If it's the legs, sounds like sciatica. It's caused by a pinching of the nerve, which the nerve interprets as pain in the leg.

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zompist wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 3:11 pm

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 3:04 pm Is there any known medical condition that causes one or more of your limbs to feel as if there's a very weak electric current flowing through them?

If it's the legs, sounds like sciatica. It's caused by a pinching of the nerve, which the nerve interprets as pain in the leg.

Yesterday, it was in one of my arms (it has gotten better since then). It's not really pain, more an annoying feeling. A while ago, it was in my legs; back then, my neurologist diagnosed it as restless leg syndrome and reduced the dosage of one of my medications, which, as far as I could tell, did the trick.

Years ago, I had an idea for a silly project that would be called something like "Coffee: The Movie". It would feature leaders of coffee-growing countries deciding to imitate OPEC by drastically cutting their exports. People in countries where coffee is popular but not grown would suffer from sudden caffeine shortages. Hilarity would ensue.

Now I wonder if something like that could actually happen in real life.

My favourite font is Verdana. I use Times New Roman more often though.

Why does Twitter's ad algorithm keep assuming I'm a Russian living outside of Russia?

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 7:13 am Why does Twitter's ad algorithm keep assuming I'm a Russian living outside of Russia?

They serve up ads according to who pays, I guess. I dont know. Just a few seconds ago I was looking at an ad in Spanish, which I can read at least well enough to read the ad, but there's no way I would ever consider myself fluent in Spanish, and would never prefer it over English. Im not sure why. It may just be that a single click-through is sufficient to convince the algorithm that I'm comfortable with both languages. But that still doesnt really explain why they would choose a spanish language ad over an English language one from the same advertiser, since presumably that advertiser pays the same in either case.

It might go away soon. With Instagram I see different cycles .... at one point I was getting ads for feminine hygiene products because it just so happened that most of the people I followed were female artists around the age where theyre just for the first time buying those things with their own money. Then I got parenting ads when I followed some women that were mothers. Overlapping this was a lot of ads aimed at people of Indian descent, because the first group of women also happened to mostly live in India. Oh well. Lately the ads have been much more relevant, and for the first time a few nights ago I actually bought something through Instagram .... a fish decal that I can stick on my computer or somewhere else. I dont even fish, but I love the look of trout and trout-based art, so it was a perfectly tuned advertisement for me.

I was participating in the Scots Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Saturday and Sunday and Michael Everett popped by yesterday.

At one time I played a bit with systematically dismissing Twitter's ads.

It ended up advertising for combine harversters and that was actually pretty peaceful.
Sadly, this only lasted for a couple of months.

I've been doing the same with Twitter for... quite a long time now. You get some weird stuff once you block all the big ones. Half the time I don't even get ads on Twitter and I can't tell if that's by design or because of how much I've blocked.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:31 am At one time I played a bit with systematically dismissing Twitter's ads.

It ended up advertising for combine harversters and that was actually pretty peaceful.
Sadly, this only lasted for a couple of months.

I systematically hide all ads I get on Facebook and it seems to make little if any difference in the long run. In most cases, the advertisers simply change their names subtly in order to continue feeding you ads. In some, I'm 100% being served ads from an advertiser I've previously hidden. So I'm essentially using Facebook to play a very low-skill low-satisfaction shooting gallery video game.

I use Tweetdeck (tweetdeck.twitter.com) and I don't see any ads. (Don't tell Twitter!)

Twitter's new thing that I hate is that it's recommending 'topics' to follow right in the main feed - topics such as 'viral tweets' or 'Taylor Swift'. I've yet to see anything remotely interesting to me. As far as I can tell, twitter doesn't provide the option to turn topic suggestions off, so I'm stuck with this feature that IMO is the opposite of twitter's USP - following specific people who post things that are interesting to me.

Because I'm in the habit of maintaining the feed and pruning accounts that I'm tired of, if something catches my eye I can assume it's worth my attention. These topic suggestions are quite big and eye-catching, so I often spend several seconds looking before I realise, and feel pissed off at being manipulated into wasting my attention on it. I have a limit of 10 minutes per day on twitter so several seconds is quite a lot to me. (The time limit helps me maintain a healthy use of social media)

zompist wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 6:15 pm I use Tweetdeck (tweetdeck.twitter.com) and I don't see any ads. (Don't tell Twitter!)

If tweetdeck can also save me from topic suggestions, I might have to switch over to it!

EDIT: Thought this discussion was in the venting thread, that's why this is a bit ranty, sorry

Is there a way to identify the grammars of a subset of natural languages as the greatest statistical outliers? Has this been done?

My Mom got an email, apparently spam or malware, which she didn't open - but judging from the subject line, it was apparently made to look like an invitation for a meeting of an organization where she is actually a member, but in a local restaurant that no longer exists, but where, back when it still existed, the organization in question really used to hold meetings. Creepy as fuck.

TIL that Engelbert Humperdinck (the singer, not the composer) was born in Madras (a.k.a. Chennai).

Is that any odder than Cliff Richard being born in Lucknow?

Since it's more or less the time around Christmas now, I thought I might post a quick random thought about my favorite Christmas-related song (that is, one of the few I actually like), Carol of the Bells. IMO, when that song is performed really well (which it rarely is, but I digress), it sounds almost sinister, which gives it a beautifully haunting and eerie quality. Years ago, I read somewhere that the Ukrainian folk song the tune is based on is so old that some believe it to be of prehistoric origin. Ever since I read that, I've associated the song with a very specific mental image: A forest in prehistoric Eastern Europe, in a dark, cold, snow-covered winter night; and a group of teenagers that is led through that forest as part of some ancient rite-of-passage thing, while adults and older teenagers who take part in the ritual as assistants chant a prehistoric song to the tune of Carol of the Bells from behind the trees.

I would have loved to post this over in the "What are you reading, watching, and listening to"-thread, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a recording available online that really illustrates my point well.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:00 am Years ago, I read somewhere that the Ukrainian folk song the tune is based on is so old that some believe it to be of prehistoric origin.

That is very cool!

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:00 am I would have loved to post this over in the "What are you reading, watching, and listening to"-thread, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a recording available online that really illustrates my point well.

I think I found a bit of what you're getting at in this recording, maybe?

quinterbeck wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 5:07 pm

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:00 am Years ago, I read somewhere that the Ukrainian folk song the tune is based on is so old that some believe it to be of prehistoric origin.

That is very cool!

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:00 am I would have loved to post this over in the "What are you reading, watching, and listening to"-thread, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a recording available online that really illustrates my point well.

I think I found a bit of what you're getting at in this recording, maybe?

Whatever may have been intended, that is a lovely arrangement and performance. I've long been fond of the melody.