apheliotropism
A collection of interesting facts with a personality precariously perched on top. They/them.
- Reposted by apheliotropism[Not loaded yet]
- Big changes in Australia's blood donor criteria that will result in more queer and trans people being able to donate from this coming April qnews.com.au/more-trans-p...
- TIL that the ABC news theme music that was used for most of the ABC's history (and is still used for news bulletins on the radio), is a whole-ass pre-existing piece of music called 'Majestic Fanfare' & was composed by a British guy. youtu.be/nYvFa0RmBbg?...
- If you grew up in Aus and you're middle aged or older that music probably activates some core memories. If you listen right to the end of the video you'll also hear an attempt that ABC made to update it in the 80s. With Synths.
- Also, if you grew up in the era of Four Corners being the hard-hitting program that tells you long-form about The Horrors, and has a grim and serious-sounding theme to match, I have startling news for you about what the original theme sounded like in the 1960s youtu.be/2iQDjdicOMU?...
- I think it goes beyond genre even - whether something is 'bad writing' depends on your criteria. I read pretty widely when I worked in book retail, incl things that, by subject/genre alone should have been my thing, but which I found unreadably badly written. The thing is, they were hugely popular
- For me bad writing is when someone can take a premise I find intriguing enough to pick up the book & totally waste it with dull, clumsy language & incoherent characterisation. But for people who are reading just to get a story told to them in a low effort, easily digestible way, those books land
- I don't wanna single out authors here, cos inevitably they'll be someone's fave, but what I call 'bad' writing is often inarguably 'successful' writing, which is a different criterion. Doesn't make me think the writing is any less bad, but what I consider 'good writing' isnt what those books are for
- Reposted by apheliotropism[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by apheliotropism[Not loaded yet]
- One minor downside of becoming vegan is that, even though you can obtain substitutes, you lose the ability to consume specific nostalgic comfort foods. In my case I'm thinking of (along others) canned rice pudding, paddle pop icecreams & Fry's Turkish delight bars.
- Reposted by apheliotropismFraser Tweedale is seeking source code for the MyGov app - he needs to raise 20k in 6 days to fund his case at administrative review tribunal - he's halfway there. Can you chip in? Or amplify the call? www.pozible.com/project/mygo...
- One type of archival content I find particularly difficult to listen to, but at the same time think is way more important than people give it credit for is vox pops/talkback. Listening to talkback from the 80s and 90s is like the pre-social-media version of 'reading the comments'...
- ...Even callers to talkback programs from our national broadcaster (which tends not to deal so heavily in provocation/outrage-bait to get callers riled up) will say the most incredible things. Sentiments where you'd be accused of exaggeration if you put them in historical fiction about the era...
- ...That's important though, to know what people were really willing to say out loud on the air 30-40yrs ago. On the flipside you'll also often hear people expressing surprisingly progressive & nuanced opinions, giving the lie to the bromide that "[Bigoted idea] was just how everyone thought then"...
- ...And sometimes you'll just hear things that are neither particularly good nor bad, just...weird. strange rationalisations by which everyday people tried to make sense of their world. It's a shame that, where it's preserved, a lot of this stuff is really poorly documented/described & hard to find
- Reposted by apheliotropism[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by apheliotropism[Not loaded yet]
- Watching a YouTube video where the creator went to a lot of trouble to be like "I wrote all of this myself, here's a meticulous list of my sources" and then dropped "I only used AI assistance for the graphics". Get absolutely fucked, pal.
- I would rather watch a video that was just 45 mins of a guy talking straight into the camera than watch a video that uses AI art. If you feel your video needs graphics or animation, either pay someone to do it, or learn to do it your damn self. No quarter will be given.
- It's a shame because the content of the videos was interesting and fairly well written. Can't support someone who's like "My work (i.e. writing) is worthy of being done by a human, but art/animation is just a free resource from the slop dispenser"
- Sorry, this rules actually 🤘
- Muppet an R rated movie: Reservoir Muppets 😎
- Everyone in the film would be a muppet except for Mr. Orange/Tim Roth.
- I recently had to listen to someone describing using ChatGPT for information/advice in a very dark & traumatic moment in their life (involving the sudden death of a loved one). It genuinely made me afraid for them & their welfare. This stuff *needs* to falter & fade away before it harns more people
