Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Fraser Spiral Illusion

 





The Fraser spiral illusion is an optical illusion that was first described by the British psychologist Sir James Fraser (1863–1936) in 1908

The illusion is also known as the false spiral, or by its original name, the twisted cord illusion. The overlapping black arc segments appear to form a spiral; however, the arcs are a series of concentric circles.

The visual distortion is produced by combining a regular line pattern (the circles) with misaligned parts (the differently colored strands). The Zöllner illusion and the café wall illusion are based on a similar principle, like many other visual effects, in which a sequence of tilted elements causes the eye to perceive phantom twists and deviations.


A variation I found here




Chromostereopsis Illusions

 

Source: Bigjobby

Chromostereopsis is a visual illusion whereby the impression of depth is conveyed in two-dimensional color images, usually of red–blue or red–green colors, but can also be perceived with red–grey or blue–grey images. Such illusions have been reported for over a century and have generally been attributed to some form of chromatic aberration.


Source



Friday, December 26, 2025

Argument from Incredulity



Argument from incredulity, also known as argument from personal incredulity, appeal to common sense, or the divine fallacy,[1] is a fallacy in informal logic. It asserts that a proposition must be false because it contradicts one's personal expectations or beliefs, or is difficult to imagine.

Arguments from incredulity can take the form:I cannot imagine how P could be true; therefore P must be false.
I cannot imagine how P could be false; therefore P must be true.

Arguments from incredulity can sometimes arise from inappropriate emotional involvement, the conflation of fantasy and reality, a lack of understanding, or an instinctive 'gut' reaction, especially where time is scarce.[2] They are also frequently used to argue that something must be supernatural in origin.[3] This form of reasoning is fallacious because one's inability to imagine how a statement can be true or false gives no information about whether the statement is true or false in reality.[



Monday, November 17, 2025

SSRI Teen Sexual Side Effects

"By now, the psychiatric profession generally recognizes high rates of sexual side effects in adults. And all six of the psychiatrists I talked with for this article noted the importance, when prescribing, of informing adolescent patients about the possibility. They also mentioned the necessity, depending on varying state laws about consent, of informing parents. But Dr. Awais Aftab, who works with adolescents and adults and is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, thinks that most prescribers are not having that conversation. 'I know of very few psychiatrists who discuss it as a potential side effect,' he said, judging by patients who come to him after having seen other practitioners, by his educational work with practicing trainees and by conversations with colleagues. He added that genuine informed consent throughout the practice of medicine is all too rare. Doctors 'might ask you to look at a pamphlet,' he said. 'That’s the culture that has developed. It’s: Here’s the medication I’m recommending.'
Peggy J. Kleinplatz, a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, told me about a moment that shed light on how family physicians and other primary-care providers — who write the majority of S.S.R.I. prescriptions in the United States and Canada — might be thinking about informed consent with patients. In 2019, Kleinplatz gave a presentation to family physicians at a Canadian medical conference. She asked her audience of some 50 doctors how many of them were aware of the sexual side effects of S.S.R.I.s. 'Eighty percent raised their hands,' she estimated. She asked how many informed their patients about these effects when they prescribed. 'Just one hand went up.' Then she asked why they didn’t. 'They said it’s a matter of patient compliance.' To inform about potential sexual side effects, they worried, was to risk the patient not taking the drug that the doctor thought necessary."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/magazine/antidepressants-ssris-teen-sexual-side-effects.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&fbclid=IwY2xjawOIL9pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFheG13VFBGNWdTUXhPU0d6c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MghjYWxsc2l0ZQIzMAABHqxAkZE8Dt6mB_1MmORvtOnqibQvBeQBbg-rSf41yKZOePKbRGE-UlahHSD8_aem_gklphRdPRKVlj1bpv1mS6Q

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Moynihan's Law

 Moynihan's Law is an observation attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, stating that the number of complaints about human rights violations in a country is inversely proportional to the actual degree of such violations in that country. In essence, the more complaints and outcry about human rights abuses you hear from a country, the better its real human rights situation tends to be, and vice versa—the countries with the worst records often make the fewest complaints or claims about violations, either due to repression or lack of freedom to speak out.

Origin and Application

  • The phrase is commonly cited in discussions of international relations, particularly when analyzing which nations protest or complain about human rights violations.

  • The idea has been referenced in the context of United Nations debates and is used to illustrate how repressive regimes often quiet dissent or suppress criticism, leading to less reported abuse, while freer societies have more outspoken discussion and critique about their problems.

Restatement

  • Moynihan's Law is sometimes phrased as: "The degree of oppression of any people is an inverse function of the amount of cries of oppression one hears from them".

  • Another version says: "The more you hear complaints of human rights violations from a country, the better its human rights situation".

This maxim highlights the paradox that open, democratic nations may appear worse in media or in public debate because their problems are aired openly, while truly repressive countries appear better simply because criticism is silenced

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Plates Facing Down



https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/anatomy-of-viral-illusion-170b36fb60c0