Thatcher Effect – Optical Illusion and Explanation | Hacker News Reader

Thatcher Effect – Optical Illusion and Explanation

optical.toys

56 pointsrobin_reala19 comments

When I was an infant, I went to school one day and there was no free milk, "Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher" had put a stop to that. I've always hated the woman, and now you've made her worse ...

She was massively, irritatingly demonized over this story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#Education_Se...

* Previous Labour government had already cut school milk,

* The Tories didn't cut it for under 7s,

* Thatcher was a new education secretary at the time and she opposed the policy.

In general people who demonise Thatcher largely agree with her on many policies. They are generally pro EU (she campaigned to remain in the referendum on EEC membership in 1975), they are usually opposed to reopening coal mines, or nationalising BP (or BA or JLR) or making telecommunications a state owned monopoly. To be fair they might favour nationalising utilities and train operating companies, but that is about it. They rarely disagree with her that climate change risks "irretrievable damage to the atmosphere, to the oceans, to earth itself", and are unlikely to want to bring back the use of CFCs.

Do you think Margaret Thatcher had Girl Power?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G6RF5ChKYQ

What about allowing Augusto Pinochet to get away with human rights violations?

If we're talking Thatcher's policies some bangers that people for some reason never bring up, she is also responsible for:

* Countless (they literally didn't bother to count) deaths caused because she refused to release accurate guidance during the height of the HIV epidemic, she didn't want the public knowing about sexual acts she disapproved of.

* Countless (again) STDs, rape, child abuse and suicide cases because she made it illegal for teachers to inform nor support students about LGBTQ issues. The average LGBTQ teenager who finished school before 2003 received ZERO sexual education catered to their actual needs, and ZERO support for the bullying they would be receiving.

I think in general people demonise her rightly, because in 2026 she would be seen as a vicious monster of a person. It is not enough to just be really great for free trade in the current era, we are beyond the point that we have to settle for unhinged backwards politics just for that.

It seems to me that no person who makes any tough choices for the society could possibly be remembered well unless they live into the period of prosperity that follows.

For example, it is popular to talk about how bad the US debt servicing (15% of the federal budget) is, or the looming social security crisis, or the pension crisis and so on. But if someone raised the social security eligibility age or changed many pensions from defined benefit to defined contribution they would be villainized. Proposition 13 is often pointed to as a source of bad Californian incentives, but anyone who runs on repealing it will ruin their political career.

To say nothing of anyone who could possibly dare to oppose FARS rules, advocate for single-stair buildings, or allow insurance companies to charge sufficiently that they can operate in California.

Thatcher closed the mines and Trump wants to open the mines, so at least one of them must be loved for it. But predictably, neither are.

> When I was an infant, I went to school one day

You most probably didn't attend school before you were 1 year old (infant definition), and if yes you certainly didn't remember that, and if so, as per public information she didn't abolish free milk under 7 years of age (or higher if there was medical reason). Heck she privately opposed that but was forced to do so by treasury (again public info).

Its a detail but sometimes shows that when we want to bash somebody we hate, every stick is good regardless of facts. Not defending her, not British national in any sense just an observer.

"Infant school" is a class of school in the UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_infant_schools_in_G...

Yes, by "infant" I didn't mean baby, rather "in infant school" so 5-11, I was 8ish IIRC? Apologies for the Briticism. No apologies for despising that evil bitch.

This counting bicycles illusion is also really crazy: https://optical.toys/disappearing-bicyclist/

Unfortunately didn’t work on mobile, the illustration figure is completely covered up by the caption text boxes :[

Follow the heads. Counting clockwise from the "A", the fifth boy has his head right on top of the line. When you shift to position B, the bit of the head on the outside becomes part of a hand.

I wish there were an easy way to rotate the image back. I can use the inspector in dev tools and manually change the transform style that's applied, I suppose.

Truly mind bending stuff!!

It had me screaming, esp while seeing some easily recognizable faces (Mona Lisa with that grump!)

More mind-blowing that even our primate cousins experience this effect.

Kanye was the only one that really didn't look too bad, his features must be very symmetrical.

Thanks for the nightmare fuel! ... These things should have a warning label.

It has: "Try not to scream." -- What more do you need?

Elon Musk doesn't look any different.

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