2022-04-16
Readings
This is a well-done special on the dwarf planet Ceres:
Changes in conditions of the early universe mostly happened quickly, as far as I understand - it’s cool that we have a shot at better understanding the precise shifts for something long ago based on remaining (light, mostly) evidence: https://phys.org/news/2022-04-phase-transitions-early-universe.html
Possibility of quantum-physics-effect-based microscopes? https://phys.org/news/2022-04-imaging-breakthrough-aid-quantum-microscopes.html
Improvements in grips that can provide feedback have a lot of potential use in robots, but also industrial equipment and prosthetics for humans (I suspect materials science advances will make a lot of this easier in the long run as some materials with unusual properties may provide the desired properties “for free” without the need for explicit sensors): https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-flexible-items-robotic-gripper-rich.html
The structuring of business and identification of official decisions matters; a tradition that’s lasted from much earlier times of using a physical stamp to mark official business decisions has some interesting repercussions today:
A frustrating dive into the politics of Marijuana legalisation into the US (I was unaware that Cory Booker’s stances are so bad on the issue):
Unprompted Thoughts
I’m coming to formalise my belief that people distant from a nation’s political center have a much stronger duty to those closer, than the other way around. The “no enemies to the left” that early socialists pushed, and “no enemies to the right” that we’re often seeing in right-wing radicalism today, is I think unhealthy. Largely because both further-from-center ideas represent bigger changes and need to be done more carefully, and fringe movements more often attract fringe people who can’t effectively administer anything (or won’t chose to, even if it’s their duty).
I briefly was curious about the lore of Narnia, a fictional world that I used to like in my childhood but which I think I’ve outgrown - dug into it and saw a lot of people fawning over Aslan. And the problem there is the same as it is with the monotheism that it’s a proxy for - what happens to people who just don’t like Aslan very much? Or disagree with his ideas? Or think he’s a poor leader? Are they to be shunned? Subjugated? Killed? Is letting them do their thing independently okay, or is that distance defined as evil? And thinking about this reminds me of this in the context of political dissidents in modern society - should a society make the existence of sub-societies easy that work by different rules? It’d be easy to say yes, but a lot of horrors like child marriage or slavery could be recreated in those, alongside neglect.
A lot of the “bring your whole self to work” idea (which I think is a bad idea) comes, I think, from atomisation in modern society and people looking for new tribes, so the workplace, where people spend a lot of time around the same people day after day, is pushed into that role of being a tribe. So its leaders become expected to issue moral proclamation, say “we’re with you”, and whatever values are there in the people come to fill the workplace. I think it’s important to realise this tendency and push against it very hard - workplaces should not be our tribes, and we shouldn’t need to agree with our coworkers to have good working relationships with them. We particularly should not need official stances on current events from them.
Current Events
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues - fortunately Ukraine is getting a more steady supply of weapons from the west, but unfortunately it took some well-documented atrocities to make this happen and struggles to maintain control over various cities continues. Russia was suspended from the UN’s Human Rights Council, but sanctions seem more about political pressure and slowing Russia as a whole; it doesn’t look like they’re actually likely to stop Russia on their own. I still favour the US declaring war on Russia and putting boots on the ground, possibly on Russian soil itself.
Elon Musk’s purchase of a lot of Twitter stock initially looked like it was going to land him a spot on the board, but he’s shifted intent and seems more keen to do a complete purchase of Twitter; its current shareholders are trying to slow that down while they think about it, while debates have sprung up on his stated reasons for his attempts and what he would do. My take is that while I would welcome Twitter moving closer to cultural ideas of free speech (which means rewriting the current platform rules in a more-free-speech-respecting way — a delicate task), I doubt Musk has the intelligence, character, or thoughtfulness to do it. He’s been astonishingly thin-skinned and irresponsible in the past (a lot of his announced intent relating to space is essentially a middle finger to science); I have no trust in him.
The Shenzhou 13 spaceflight, a Chinese Mission, just returned to Earth after the longest stay done by Taikonauts so far - https://phys.org/news/2022-04-chinese-astronauts-earth-months-space.html
Shebaz Sharif, unfortunately, was elected PM of Pakistan after Khan’s removal a week ago. This continues the tendency of Pakistan to prefer politicians of one of a very small number of families.
The next round of the French Presidential elections will be in a few weeks, being an uncomfortable choice between Macron (who seems okay - not great, but okay) and Marine Le Pen (a Putin-friendly far-right leader). It’d be great in my view for Le Pen to lose badly, but it’s disappointing that it came down to those two.
Reviewlets
Itorah (video game) - It feels stylistically and thematically similar to Child of Light, but it’s more of an action platformer than an RPG. Decent (if not memorable) music. I’m just a little ways into it and it’s good but a bit monotonous; reasonable challenge though. I hope the existing gameplay variety is not all there is.
Dorothy and the Wizard In Oz - The next in the Oz series - I’m thinking about patterns in the series - it’s not uncommon that long-running scams scams are revealed (the Wizard being not magical is just one example), to the level of it feeling like social commentary. I’ve also enjoyed thinking about how the dialogue of children and childlike characters differs from actual children. Real children usually have a lot of topic blindness, alongside the (portrayed) simpler understandings of real things. Plus less training to attend to the lives of others or consequences for things, and less of a clean idea of differing worldviews.
Amusements
An animator put together an example of what it would have looked like if Star Trek: TNG had been given the “animated series” treatment, and it’s amazing.
I really like the “some courts do not accept…” line from this great M&W sketch on Poirot:
14 years ago, Jibjab used to be a group that did music-backed comedy (nowadays they mostly make custom greeting cards). 2008 was a simpler, happier time for our country, I think.
A fun math-y riddle that’s hard to get right without pen and paper:
Recent Music
Jack White - The White Raven - The sound reminds me a bit of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but more experimental
Rasputina - The Olde Head Board - There are a lot of weird rhythms in this
The Rocky Horror Show soundtrack - Over in the Frankenstein Place - Recently I’ve been thinking again about the removal of Brad’s verses from the song in the movie, and listening to soundtracks from productions of the play for comparison
Winifred Phillips - Shadowed - Dramatic filmlike dreamlike piece