The FBI's Guide To Slang
Mōrena lil shits!!
Yesterday turned out to be a HUGE one for Kiwi/ Aussie Harry Styles fans coz he announced he's coming in 2023!!!! Hilariously I got a phone call from one of our national news outlets wanting to do a v quick interview with me (the interview was hilarious) (I do this shit to try and give stans a good name but maybe.... maybe I do the opposite.) We also had to re-record a few questions because I kept swearing... ah! All in a days work eh! It turns out all they used was a quote from me saying that I 'wanted to vom' which is really good for me :P At least I was honest I guess.
After recovering from that excitement I went to my hometown quiz night and we got second (again), and as you're reading this I will be on a plane back to Tāmaki Makaurau to wreak havoc up there once more!
🥺 If you want to pay for the media you love and make sure I can continue to do this for you, PLEASE, become a SYSCA supporter here - I need you! 🥺
Bel Chimes In: On why we need both stillness and silence
Why we remember music and nothing else
The FBI's 83-page guide to internet slang is an absolute rollercoaster
TODAY I LEARNT THAT THE KOREAN AGE SYSTEM IS DIFFERENT TO OURS
Do you wave to courteous drivers?
Bel Chimes In: On why we need both stillness and silence
This section is written by my crush, the refreshing-as-a-house-chardonnay-on-a-steamy-day, Bel Hawkins. You should check out more of her beautiful words here.
Ok, so a little different this week but hear me out.
Where I used to work, above one of Auckland’s busiest streets, one of the dairy (convenience store) owners used to take an up-turned milk crate out onto the footpath every day, take her shoes off and sit, face to the sun with her eyes closed as the traffic and chaos rushed past. She used to do it every day it wasn’t raining, for years and years. When we asked her about it she said it made her calm and happy. Her dog was called Lucky. I watched her every day and wondered how she did it.
It made me think all the time about the importance of stillness and silence. How often are we still? Like, when we’re not sleeping? And how often silent? When we’re still how often are we not reaching for our phones, to fill the silence with music or a tv show or a podcast (SYSCA podcasts obvs not included here) or a phone call?
When we sit, and we are still and quiet, something magic happens. Sometimes it’s confronting but most of the time good. If you trust me enough to try it.
Why we remember music and nothing else
Now THIS would be a great episode of Culture Vulture. Remember that episode of Hannah Montana where she wanted to pass her biology exam so she wrote the bone song? Well that’s exactly what I’m about to talk about - why can we recall so much music, but when it comes to history, or other ✨important✨ things, we just can’t retain it??? This article has the answers, but I’m gonna sum it up for you, because that’s kinda my job.
Reason 1: We listen to a LOT of it
“In 2017, Nielsen estimated that Americans spend over 32 hours a week on average listening to music” - so surely some of it’s gonna stick.
Reason 2: It gets stuck in our heads so we’re forced to remember it
Or, put more scientifically: “Many of us can hear music in our minds, which is called having musical or auditory imagery. “This can happen voluntarily or deliberately, so if I [ask you to] think of the song ‘Happy Birthday,’ you can probably hear it playing in your mind right now, but it can also happen involuntarily. That’s what we call an earworm, when we get a song that pops into mind without you actually trying to recall any music.”
Reason 3: It makes us happy, and we like to remember happy things:
“Listening to music releases dopamine in the brain, with our dopamine levels increasing by up to 9% when listening to music we enjoy.”
Reason 4: We select music we identify with (sometimes associated with memories), making it easier to remember
“Music is inherently bound up with personal identity, and so [when people can] identify pieces of music without a lot of information, it’s often music from their youth [which can trigger] what we call the reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory.”
Reason 5: It triggers an emotional response:
“People often wonder why we tend to remember songs and lyrics more easily than our own memories, where we kept our keys, and what we learned in school. It seems to be because of how often we experience music, in the world or in our minds, and the joy and emotional connection it brings us. Music represents who we are and how we feel, so of course it’s what we remember.”
There you go!
The Rise and Fall of David Dobrik
The Rise and Fall of David Dobrik — open.spotify.com
A cheeky re-upload! Today's episode is all about David Dobrik and the recent and very serious rape allegations against the Vlog Squad. We explain who and what the Vlog Squad is, why influencers and creators keep fucking up, yet their platforms HARDLY EVER suffer, and whether it's the job of the creator to predict what is or isn't going to be okay in the future. A big episode, but a very important one.
The FBI's 83-page guide to internet slang is an absolute rollercoaster
Input did some incredible reporting to bring the FBI’s ‘guide to internet slang’ to the world, pulling out gems like:
IOKIYAR = it’s ok if you’re a Republican
BFP = big fat positive (i.e. pregnant)
BIC = believe it comrade
FTASB = faster than a speeding bullet
DPYN = don’t pick your nose
EB = eyeball
IITYWTMWYKM = if I tell you what this means will you kiss me
I read through a bit of it (and you can too, here) but it’s honestly so bad that unless you’re doing a research paper of something (which would low key be a cool paper) I wouldn’t waste your time.
UM WHY DID I NOT KNOW THAT THE KOREAN AGE SYSTEM IS DIFFERENT TO OURS?
I came across this article in the BBC titled‘ Korean Age System: Why Koreans could soon become a year younger,’ and honestly, I was fascinated! So, in South Korea, when a baby is born, they are considered a year old. Like - as soon as they’re born. And then, when they pass the new year, they gain another year. So if you’re born in December you could be considered two years old in only a matter of weeks.
The reason this is in the news now is because this ‘Korean age’ method could change as the country's president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is pushing for it to be abolished.
The BBC article quite helpfully uses BTS to describe the three different methods of counting someone’s again in South Korea.
So there is:
The ‘Korean age’ method, which I just explained, which counts every newborn baby as one year old, and adds a year each January 1st
The International age, which is the traditional ‘you are born on your birth date and you age according to that’
And there’s also another official Korean age where babies are born at the age of 0, and gain a year every January 1
Therefore, as the BBC put it:
“Under these methods, mega K-pop band BTS's Kim Tae-hyung aka V, born on 30 December 1995, is 28 years old (Korean age), 26 years old (the international age) or 27 years old (another Korean official age).”
In Korean society, most people use the first Korean age method and it's believed that South Korea is actually the only country that still counts age in this way. But with all these different methods, not only can it get confusing, but it can lead to children having difficulties at school (if they’re significantly “younger” than their peers) and also create difficulty when it comes to things like vaccine eligibility.
All of this is to say that the president-elect is looking at standardising ages, and we have just learnt something new!
Do you wave to courteous drivers?
97% say you do
3% say you don't
But I drive up an street where you often have to pull over and let cars through and let me tell you... THESE NUMBERS DO NOT REFLECT THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT WAVE AT ME FOR LETTING THEM IN.
Boris Isn’t Sorry For Party Rocking (The Shit Show)
What Your Jealousy Is Really Telling You (Culture Vulture)
Travis Scott gives first public performance post-Astroworld at a Coachella afterparty (Input)
Rachel Zegler Says Answering for Ansel Elgort Was a ‘Gut Punch’ (The Cut)
DO YOU HAVE POSTER’S DISEASE? (Gawker)
Become a ✨SYSCA SUPPORTER✨ — shityoushouldcareabout.memberful.com
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