interesting links for April 2018

Here’s what I read and watched last month. Follow along and tell me what you think in the comments.

language

Unker Non-Linear Writing System

a paper by Alex Fink and Sai

What if a written language weren’t constrained by mapping to a one-dimensional stream of sounds? What if it could arrange ideas in two dimensions? UNLWS produces writing that looks like a diagram and doesn’t have a canonical spoken form.

Thoth’s Pill: an Animated History of Writing

a video by NativLang

NativLang gives a playful overview of how different writing systems were formed, from early pictographs through alphabets to modern systems like Hangul.

history

The Original Memes (Before Memes)

a listicle on Dictionary.com

Memes are often thought of as a recent phenomenon, but this brief listicle frames Internet memes as an expression of an ages-old phenomenon.

politics

Immigration - the great non-debate

a video by Nikolas Lloyd a.k.a. Lindybeige

Lloyd outlines a way to think about politics to escape polarisation. He makes a point about immigration policy as an example.