Study: Air purifier use at daycare centres cut kids’ sick days by a third
The results of the study at two Helsinki daycare centres are still preliminary but promising, a researcher says. Open image viewer The air purifiers used in the experiment differed in size as well as manufacturer. Image: Mårten Lampén / Yle 27.11.2023 17:33•Updated 28.11.2023 7:57 Use of air purifiers at two daycare centres in Helsinki led […]
From Datalog to SVG
When working with generative algorithms it is convenient to store the results as you make them. I usually export vector drawings to .svg. This has a few drawbacks. Most notably that the actual graph (topology) is more or less lost in the .svg file. Making it impossible to re-draw an .svg from the graph with […]
Monumental architecture in Atlantic Europe: fifth-millennium BC enclosure
Introduction The emergence in Neolithic Europe of various forms of architectural monumentality attests to these societies’ capacity to coordinate large-scale projects and to construct shared social spaces (Müller Reference Müller and Osborne2014). The notion of monumentality, which is most often associated with megalithism, also includes the ditched enclosures linked to Linearbandkeramik (LBK) settlements that first […]
Why Does EmacsLisp Suck?
(See also EmacsLispLimitations, SchemeAndLisp) Background I’m a long-time Emacs user who is new to the under-the-hood side of things. I recently started learning EmacsLisp and writing my own Emacs extensions. I like sitting in IRC channels devoted to technical subjects I’m interested in, so I found #emacs and started hanging out there. It was not […]
In Pre-WWII Berlin, the Shape of Your Roof Was a Highly Political Decision
The competing communities. Collage adapted from German Federal Archive/CC BY-SA 3.0 Sharp observers will notice something strange about the attractive residences lining Am Fischtal, a bucolic street in the Zehlendorf section of Berlin. On one side, the buildings have flat roofs, while on the other they are pitched: a situation that is less architectural happenstance […]
If Your World Is Not Enchanted, You’re Not Paying Attention
The Convivial Society: Vol. 5, No. 11 Welcome to the Convivial Society, a newsletter about technology and culture. In this installment, I return to a perennial subject for me: attention and its moral dimensions. Because I do come back to this topic more than most, I sometimes feel as if I ought to give it […]
A Weekend at the Immersion Larp Festival
2-3 August 2024Tehdas Teatteri, Turku, Finland€60 (£51 / $66) Earlier this month, I travelled to Turku, Finland to take part in Immersion, an international chamber live-action role playing (larp) festival. I’ve been reading a lot about the tradition of Nordic larp for a book I’m researching on the rise of immersive art, and I wanted […]
Google’s New Pipe Syntax in SQL
SQL Has Problems. We Can Fix Them: Pipe Syntax In SQL (via) A new paper from Google Research describing custom syntax for analytical SQL queries that has been rolling out inside Google since February, reaching 1,600 “seven-day-active users” by August 2024. A key idea is here is to fix one of the biggest usability problems […]
Vim Racer
The goal of the game is to navigate to every target as quickly as possible. You have access to every vim motion command, so the most efficient time will make use of them. To start the race, click reset. Now your browser will be focused on the editor, so you can immediately starting using vim […]
Scientists achieve more than 98% efficiency removing nanoplastics from water
“Our strategy uses a small amount of designer solvent to absorb plastic particles from a large volume of water,” said Gary Baker, an associate professor in the University of Missouri’s Department of Chemistry. Aug. 13, 2024Contact: Eric Stann, 573-882-3346, [email protected] by Sam O’Keefe University of Missouri scientists are battling against an emerging enemy of human […]