jan's stuff

Alles wat Jan bezig houdt, interesseert en irriteert... en ook een beetje onzin...

dinsdag, augustus 22, 2023

The Mind Of A Bee

https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-the-mind-of-a-bee

So for decades, scientists assumed that bees could not differentiate squares and triangles, because in their experimental paradigms where they asked bees to look at squares and triangles, there was no downside. Bees just blitzed the test to get that sweet, sweet sucrose. Once penalties were introduced for mistakes, bees started performing much better and could easily differentiate squares and triangles.

This illuminates one large problem with measuring cognition in vertebrates and invertebrates. If an animal can't do something in one test, it tells you a lot more about that test than the animals' generalised skillset.

maandag, augustus 21, 2023

Allergies as a modern phenomenon.


Allergies - It's a rather curious fact that allergies are a modern phenomenon. Few people had allergies before the 1950's and they're going up everywhere. 

woensdag, augustus 16, 2023

‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Everywhere. What Are They Doing to Us? - The New York Times


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/magazine/pfas-toxic-chemicals.html


"I've heard some people say, 'Well, if everybody is exposed to PFAS, how come we aren't all dead?'" Jamie DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, told me. In fact, she says, "People actually are dying." DeWitt cited a report in The Lancet that calculated that about nine million people each year die from chronic diseases caused by environmental pollutants of all kinds. "We need prevention," DeWitt says. "And that means acknowledging that environmental exposures lead to diseases."

zaterdag, juli 01, 2023

The Missing Bill Murray Part from “Asteroid City” | The New Yorker


https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-missing-bill-murray-part-from-asteroid-city



Wes Anderson's new film, "Asteroid City," has a proverbial cast of thousands—Jason Schwartzman! Scarlett Johansson! Tom Hanks! Jeffrey Wright! Edward Norton!—but one stalwart of Anderson's troupe is conspicuously missing: Bill Murray, who has been in the director's last nine features. Murray was originally cast as a motel manager in the desert town where the movie is set, in 1955. "Normally, I don't think it's such a nice idea to tell everyone the person who didn't end up in the movie," Anderson said recently. "But Bill got covid in Ireland, and it was four days before he was supposed to work." 

After viewing this movie trailer, and others like it before, I *really* want to go and watch Asteroid City. But first, I'll view Indiana Jones and The Dail of Destiny this weekend 🤔 


donderdag, juni 29, 2023

6 (onzin)redenen om het salaris niet te vermelden in de vacaturetekst


https://kiqit.nl/redenen-salaris-vacaturetekst/


we willen niet dat mensen alleen bij ons komen werken voor het geld.
Snap ik. Ik werk ook voor mijn plezier. En daarmee betaal ik al mijn rekeningen: mijn hypotheek, mijn brandstof en het brood van de bakker. Vinden ze geen probleem.