Victor Loux Bookmarks

A feed of interesting articles and websites I have recently read. Check out my newsletter for a digest of the best!

Our First Closeup Image of Mars Was a Paint-By-Numbers Pastel Drawing

kottke.org/22/12/our-first-closeup-image-of-mars-was-a-paint-by-numbers-pastel-drawing
On July 15, 1965, NASA's Mariner 4 probe flew within 6,118 miles of the surface of Mars, capturing images as it passed over the

The Dangers of Elite Projection

humantransit.org/2017/07/the-dangers-of-elite-projection.html
(Leer en español aquí.)   Elite projection is the belief, among relatively fortunate and influential people, that what those people find convenient or attractive is good for the society as a whole.  Once you learn to recognize this simple mistake, you see it everywhere.  It is perhaps the single most comprehensive barrier to prosperous, just, and […]

2022 Winners | The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

bulwer-lytton.com/2022
For 40 years, the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest has invited people to come up with the worst possible opening sentences to really bad novels.

Welcome to Talking Points for Life

talkingpointsforlife.com/
Too many people are left wandering through Reddit threads and Quora posts looking for advice on what to say. Communication is tricky. We all bring our own biases, emotions and histories to the table. This site will help you navigate those tricky subjects, allowing you to build healthier and happier relationships.

Alan MacMasters: How the great online toaster hoax was exposed

bbc.com/news/the-reporters-63622746
How a 15-year-old schoolboy exposed a much-repeated "fact" as a Wikipedia hoax.

The World’s Loudest Sound

kottke.org/14/10/the-worlds-loudest-sound
The sound made by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away, travelled aro

Derek Powazek - A community isn’t a garden, it’s a bar.

powazek.com/posts/3571
The most obvious way an online community is like a bar is that bars serve alcohol, and alcohol makes people loud and stupid. It actually depresses your hearing, so you can’t hear yourself talk as well, so you speak louder. And a room full of people speaking louder means a very boisterous room. And of course, alcohol reduces inhibition, so you say things you might not usually say. The parallels to online behavior are easy to see. Online, people are much more willing to type things t...

The Arctic Circle: A new frontier for sustainable wine

bbc.com/travel/article/20220831-the-arctic-circle-a-new-frontier-for-sustainable-wine
Once seen as experimental and at the fringe of what's possible, a commercial wine industry in regions just below the Arctic circle is taking advantage of the warmer summers.