Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Why do mosquitoes fly round my ear?

We all know it is annoying. So I searched the web. A web site said this was because our ears 'smelt' and mosquitoes were attracted to that smell. (I cannot find the web site now.) Interesting.

Perhaps it is not the smell; it could be something else. But that does not affect the hypothesis I am going to elaborate. It does not matter why mosquitoes are attracted to our ears, the important fact is that mosquitos are attracted to our ears. My hypothesis is that attracting mosquitoes to our ears is the result of human evolution, as a defense mechanism against mosquitoes.

Mosquito is most likely the number one animal that kills the most people in the world. It transmits numerous deadly diseases and unlike other deadly insects, it is everywhere. So it is apparent that as the number of mosquito-bites increases, so does the risk of getting deadly diseases. Thus, I can say those individuals who had less mosquito-bites had higher chance of survival (even if the difference were small, it could be significant when accumulated for several millions of years).

During this summer, I caught and killed a lot of mosquitoes. Often I discovered the mosquitoes because they buzzed round my ears. If they attacked my back or my leg first, I would not have discovered them and probably been bitten. In fact, those times I got bitten, I was sleeping or the mosquito bit my leg. Killing mosquitoes is relatively easy once we have found them; it is finding them that is difficult because they are silent, small, and agile.

Our ears are good for detecting things omnidirectionally, and unlike eyes, they are always 'on' even in the dark. So, as long as we are awake, if mosquitoes buzz round our ears, we have a high chance of noticing them. And if a mosquitoes is round your ear, that also means it is in the 'killing range' of your hands. So the individuals who successfully attracted mosquitoes to their ears than to their legs had higher chance of dodging the bite, and prospered. Thus, by the power of natural selection, current humans have the ability to attract mosquitoes to the ears.

Now, one might ask, "But, do our ears really intentionally attract mosquitoes? Isn't it just mosquitoes happen to be attracted to our ears?" Well, when we talk about evolution, there is no distinction whether it is purposeful or not. "Purpose" is something humans have made up. It only exists in our heads. In reality, if (for any reason) A exists and B happens if A exists (for whatever reasons), one could say A's purpose is to cause B. This is a kind of anthropomorphism to make it easy for us to understand. It would not do harm if we are not stupid. Dr Dawkins and other evolutionary scientists use this method to explain things. If you read their books, you would know what I mean.

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

How to fix ugly Japanese font in File Explorer and other built-in apps in Windows 10

On English version of Windows 10, Japanese texts such as file names in File Explorer or texts in built-in apps such as Music, look ugly, as if they were rendered using some kind of Chinese font.

I have tried many things and found a solution. I need to install the Japanese Supplementary Fonts in Optional Features. To do this, open Settings, type Optional Feature, and then install the Japanese Supplementary Fonts. Now, restart Windows.

The same thing applies to Korean. Google Chrome displayed some Korean text (such as those in Google search result) with squares. After installing Korean Supplementary Fonts, it was fixed.

This seems to be caused that the web page is using some old Korean fonts that were available in Windows 7/8 by default, but not in Windows 10. This could be a problem of that web page, but it is definitely Microsoft's fault that Microsoft's own File Explorer and built-in apps do not use new Japanese fonts and try to use old Japanese fonts that are not available in Windows 10 by default and then falls back to some Chinese font.

I have submitted this problem using Insider's Feedback.
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영문판 Windows 10의 파일 탐색기와 기본 앱 등에서 일본어 텍스트가 이상한 글꼴로 지저분하게 표현된다. 방법을 찾아 이것저것 해 본 결과 방법을 찾긴 했다. 물론 내 시간은 누가 보상할 것인가만은. Settings에서 Optional Feature를 입력 후, Japanese Supplementary Fonts를 설치하고 Windows를 새로 시작하면 일본어 텍스트가 Meiryo 글꼴로 깨끗하게 표시된다.

Google Chrome에서 영어 Google로 간 후 검색을 하면 검색 결과의 한글이 네모로 보였는데, 이것도 마찬가지로 Korean Supplementary Fonts를 설치하니까 해결되었다.