2022-02-19
Readings
Stem cell-based treatment for HIV appears to be successful - https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/scientists-possibly-cured-hiv-woman-first-time-rcna16196
A nice summary of NASA’s Perserverance rover and its missions on Mars: https://phys.org/news/2022-02-nasa-perseverance-celebrates-year-mars.html
A better understanding of the mechanisms by which Venus Flytraps close on prey, which is obviously pretty different than the way an animal would do any of it: https://phys.org/news/2022-02-scientists-reveal-venus-snaps.html
Interesting analysis of a court case and its implications - that of someone who used to own France-dot-com before it was seized by the Government of France. https://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/france-com-inc-v-the-french-republic-fourth-circuit-holds-france-immune-from-trademark-infringement-claims
I think it’s generally unnatural to perform philosophy in academia; most topics under philosophy are better explored either in life or near those other fields, and the more social organisations of circles in cafes and lone philosophers outside of peer review are jointly sufficient for the field. Interesting to see that peer review may be one of the things that breaks it in academia. https://dailynous.com/2022/02/18/is-peer-review-in-philosophy-broken-beyond-reasonable-repair/
This week I watched an IQ2US debate on genetic engineering and humanity; my views on this are a tension between my general enthusiasm for technological improvement, and my worries for how this particular advance may lead to accelerating social divides that become biological divides. I felt largely the same way before and after the debate (and was very, very disappointed with one of the debaters). Interesting as usual though:
Unprompted Thoughts
I’ve been thinking about the relationship between a broad “side” of a country’s politics being ascendant, and the factions that tends to grow or shrink in it. In particular, I wonder if some of the traits I have (as part of the US Left) are less common in times when the Left is ascendant. I think it’s easy to be for intuitions of free speech and civil liberties and moderation to do well when the Left is not ascendant, and probably harder for those parts to do well when it is; the idea of having cultural power easily leads to enthusiasm for its abuse. Maybe it’s generational as well; my beliefs feel genuine to me, but perhaps the way this works is that people like me emerge in lower proportions compared to progressives, in this era. This doesn’t suggest an easy solution, although if the abuses of the Progressives alienate the center enough, the Left (as a whole, sadly) will recede and perhaps Liberal parts of the Left will dominate again for a time. I hope. Presumably similar cycles happen on the right.
Recently I’ve been thinking about one of the mottos of a podcast I’m marginallly aware of - “Stare Decisis is for Suckers”. This bothers me; Stare Decisis is an important principle in Common Law systems meaning court deference to precedent. It is a complex doctrine, one that’s philosophically interesting, but I think once the bad arguments are pared away, sufficient good justifications remain in place to see it as desirable (despite its quirks, including that there may be more than one reasonable extension of the status quo before a decision is made). It has a precedent far longer than the age of our contry, it limits unpredictability in law and the scope of power of a judge in the moment, and it produces fewer incompatibilities, among other benefits. I recently came across an interesting discussion on it (I don’t think I agree with the author, but that’s fine): https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2020/03/is-stare-decisis-for-suckers.html
In slowly working my way through Nioh, the character of Oda Nobunaga (so far in the background of the story) is explored; he’s alternatively depicted as a tyrant and a hero, and in my reading on him outside the game, that seems supportable for the real-life character as well; people forgive a lot of those who unite nations (the 2002 Wuxia film “Hero” is another example). I’ve been thinking through this - the wars that tiny realms often have such a high continual cost that atrocities needed to bring unity may be justified; my thoughts on this fit into a general theme in how I see morality of jurisprudence ; the idea that law is a gradually civilising force, and that the role of a lot of early governance is to become ever more civilised (and in turn to rule out a lot of things, along with their need, for harsh measures more common in eras of low standards and low social trust). If we were to imagine a zombie apocalypse and a fallen society, very harsh things may be justified, but in such a case reestablishing civilisation and rebuilding those norms should also be seen as a duty.
Current Events
Russia, as predicted, is fabricating pretexts for further invading Ukraine. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-02-15/putin-says-russia-does-not-want-war-calls-donbass-genocide
Also on Russia, an investigation of the tactics it uses to create and try to win international conflicts, in this case trying to use its limited treaty rights in Svalbaard to justify expansive and unjustified undersea resources: https://www.lawfareblog.com/case-study-russias-arctic-posture
Recently in Canada, truckers opposed to vaccine requirements have staged an Occupy-style (but with trucks) protest in Ottowa. A lot of strange legal moves have been used to combat the protest, from various attempts to cut off donations to confiscate funds to forcible evacuations. My stance is that while their cause is stupid, it’s generally appropriate to let people protest, even in ways that can be disruptive. I feel that Canada’s clearance efforts have gone beyond the reasonable and should be condemned. Some reading: https://fortune.com/2022/02/18/freedom-convoy-protests-canada-lawsuit-freeze-crypto-wallets-ottawa/
First stage of what looks like it will be a multi-stage election in Costa Rica
A nasty cyclone is flooding Madagascar and nearby islands, having killed over a hundred people so far. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149454/cyclone-batsirai-floods-madagascar
The BLM-Louisville organisation (I’m not fond of BLM movements although I understand why they exist) raised some eyebrows for pouring support, sympathy, and bail money towards one of their members who tried to murder a jewish politician.
San Francisco reigned in some of their (in my view excessively progressive to the level of being nuts) school board members recently; I think SF would take an enormous amount of effort to fix as a city (largely requiring ousting most people with socially-progressive views, but this is an encouraging start
Reviewlets
Shapeways (3d printing company) - This is a NYC-based 3d printing company that I’ve been using to print scientific figures at work. I think they’re great; if you can get your data into an stl format, you can upload it to their site, pick a material, and a few weeks later you probably will have a print in your hands (if your model is hard to print you may need to talk through fixing it with their engineers). The only downside I see is that they can be slow, but I can live with that.
Amusements
A very old song and some modern renditions:
Part of a cool back-and-forth between LockpickingLawyer and someone who crafted a custom lock for him (the crafter is a bit annoying, but cool project) -
I love this set of weird (old, sadly) sketches from the people who put together “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra” -
Recent Music
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - O Children - Really interesting background sound that gives a feeling that maybe something is wrong
Heilung - Norupa - This also has an interesting background atmospheric - the empty spaces in this song are not empty
Toten Hosen - Alles was war - This band does a lot of sad nostalgia songs in a rock/alternative format.