2022-03-19
Readings
Materials Science can take the form of highly artificial materials or in using and manipulating natural ones; it’s interesting to imagine a world where we primarily build with modified natural materials like this: https://phys.org/news/2022-03-unique-ingredient-bamboo.html
This is an overview of the PDP-11, a very popular (non-personal) computer from the 1970s: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/a-brief-tour-of-the-pdp-11-the-most-influential-minicomputer-of-all-time/
What editorial and other standards should preprint sites follow? Preprint sites serve a valuable role in science, not as the kind of trusted-and-vetted result that comes through normal journalistic review, but as a hint as to what might be published soon, and sometimes as a way to get around paywalls journals put up. Peer review isn’t always strictly about the science; journals usually want things to be written properly, with professional tone and good grammar among other things. Preprint sites don’t usually do editing, which can be a problem. Here’s one specific problem that’s come up: https://www.science.org/content/article/preprint-server-removes-inflammatory-papers-superconductor-controversy
It’s interesting to see solar power stations in space being considered for the first time, as far as I’m aware, outside of science fiction: https://phys.org/news/2022-03-solar-power-station-space-benefits.html
Progress in treating certain kinds of blindness (tested just in mice so far): https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-antabuse-revive-vision-people-disorders.html
I find radical culture bizarre; I understand that there’s a perpetual need to create new meaning and differentiate oneself from others and from earlier generations; I think that fuels a lot of radicalism in culture. This article, just like the earlier creation of the term “Queer” to give straight-but-trendy people a label they can wear to fit in with the ever-expanding alphabet soup of non-straight-and-misc crowd, is pretty hilarious but pretty educational too. https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vxxy/what-is-radical-monogamy
Efforts towards a 3d printed heart and 3d bioprinting in general:
Unprompted Thoughts
Pragmatic Moralising - we should generally view moral statements as conditional in some way; it takes work to identify strength of a commitment to a principle. Discourse on hypocrisy is welcome ; helps us be more principled and more thoughtful, and to recognise our own turning points
There has been a lot of effort in recent years to establish guidelines and evaluation criteria for videogames, much of it in my view negative-but-well-intentioned. Ideas that to make sure that very broad audiences can enjoy every game, most difficult games should have lower difficulties available that let low-skill gamers engage (bad idea), ideas about subtitle visibility and size (good idea), ideas about frequency of save points (bad idea), and so on. Many of these are worth thinking about, but as rules they should be rejected. For difficulty, the argument of “what does it hurt good gamers that a story-only-difficulty exists?”; this is worth arguing against but it takes some effort. I’d offer that many gamers will have a better experience if they’re pushed to try harder, that exclusivity (and a unified experience) is itself fun, and that for those who can’t manage, they can at least watch it on a Let’s Play on Youtube or elsewhere, as the game was meant to be played. The success of Elden Ring will hopefully act as a kind of pushback against that movement.
Why is bad writing so common? Fanfics and a lot of lower-grade movies (including, sadly, all of Star Trek: Discovery) suffers from it, with things like “The Mary Sue” (see TvTropes for a discssion on that) being common. I think it’s significantly that the way we often write stories is we pull them from our dreams, and most people’s dreams are tightly centered around them. There are reason they’re probably like that; they’re sensory and embodied, among others. The appeal of using them as inspiration for stories is obvious; particularly as adults we rarely are fully open when awake, and they’re endlessly creative. The problem is that they need filtering and extensive revision to feed good stories. Most people are not good at building the mental habits to do that (although starting with non-story-focused worldbuilding, perhaps on a private wiki, helps)
I think the solution to the “whataboutism” concern I’ve been thinking about for awhile is to ask whether a raised concern supports consistent standards or whether it’s something distant from what’s being discussed. It’s not that difficult to explain this in a discussion, and it’s a reasonable statement of the standard at hand.
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, leading to a civilian crisis in most cities; there is a possibility that the invasion will remain in its stalled state for some time, making escalation (Which I favour; I believe western forces should put boots on the ground and push Russia out) more likely.
The US Senate had a unanimous vote to make permanent daylight savings time nationwide; I wonder if the House will go along with it. I hope so; while I prefer we end DST, the change between DST and standard time is the main irritant and which we land on is just an implementation detail.
There’s a bipartisan (and very bad) bill, the SMART Copyright Act of 2022, that was just introduced in the US Senate that would force certain copyright enforcement measures on internet-tied companies.
Reviewlets
Boston Museum of Science (museum) - I was very impressed with how a lot of space in the museum was themed about ratios. The demonstrations were fantastic, and while ratios are a little abstract for really young kids, seeds for curiosity were planted; for older kids, fumbling with a challenge is replaced by something that can be calculated. I’m always impressed when a museum can appeal well to people of all ages.
Pink Taco (Boston Bar) - This was my last stop on a visit to Boston last weekend, and it was unfortunately terrible. The drinks were all moderately off (they seemed related to but not really what we ordered), and the food was shoddy. The only thing I can say for the place is that the space they had set up was comfortable; perhaps for people who turn up to get very drunk, the low quality of the food and drinks doesn’t matter very much.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (book) - I haven’t read the series since high school (I remember the later books being quite good). I had a great time with the first book and look forward to rereading the rest in the weeks to come. Just like with the Phantom Tollbooth, it’s for kids without talking down too much to them, and to an adult it’s not boring (if a little less cerebral than I’d want)
(I gave up on Valerie Valdes’ Chilling Effect series; I eventually came to find the main character too irritating to want to follow any further)
Mephisto (shoes) - I recently replaced a beloved set of shoes I’ve probably had for about 6 years, also of this brand; these shoes are all descendants of the “Abel” line (they call these the Goodyear Welt/Norwegian line), of which I had several. I trust that shoes in this line will be long-lasting, worth refurbishing every so often, and they’ll become extremely comfortable after a month or two. The new pair is a Melchior.
Amusements
Nice piece going into the details of woodblock prints in Japanese art: https://blog.britishmuseum.org/the-great-wave-spot-the-difference/
Fun to get a new perspective on one’s language by hearing people make fun of the phonemes they hear without really knowing the language well:
I bet when this penguin returned to its flock and told the story, none of the other penguins believed it:
Recent Music
Band of Horses - You are nice to Me - The song doesn’t move around a lot musically; it feels like exploring a flower very throughly
Poe - Haunted - I wonder if the “ba da ba ba” part was written first and the other voices and the variances were wrapped around that. It’s a weary, pretty, and sad song
Nana Kitade - Kesenai Tsumi - It may be that I’m not well-versed in musical tropes in J-Pop, but there’s a lot of variation in the song structure here that I find hard to predict, and being surprised when listening to music is thrilling
Nothing but Thieves - Amsterdam - This reminds me of Muse but with more of an Alternative/Rock flavour