2022-06-11
Readings
A fun hypothesis for why females live longer across a variety of species (including humans):
While I don’t cheer any advances along these lines (I think it makes the world worse to have tech-enforced code obfuscation), the theory behind this (effort to prove and advance what can be obfuscated) is really interesting:
I’m not sure if this captured all the relevant facts, but along the way of explaining why Tesla’s Semi is (probably) largely useless, it’s an interesting framework for evaluating methods of transit:
Jupiter, like a star, has a higher concentration of metals towards its center rather than being evenly mixed: https://phys.org/news/2022-05-jupiter-inhomogeneous-metallicity-clues.html
Efforts towards understanding chimp linguistics: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03350-8
Incoming new dataset from the Gaia telescope that will give us better maps of our galaxy: https://www.space.com/gaia-data-release-milky-way-best-map
Thoughts
I’ve been thinking about police duty to act, and I think I’ve reached the conclusion that while in certain cases we could imagine a (very) carefully constructed duty going beyond this, we wouldn’t like to live in a society where the state has a legal duty to prevent harn; imagining liability of that sort would create police (and social worker) environments where they would be hyperactive, and risk-averse to the level where they would always intervene heavily even in the vast majority of cases where no (or light) intervention is appropriate. So while it’s a shame when inaction leads to tragedy, requiring the opposite is not the right thing.
The January 6th Commission has started talking about the results of their investigation, and while I’m generally wary of political statements that would seem to benefit one side of the local political rivalry over the other, taking that wariness too far would come to resemble a “everything is politics” perspective that leads to pure tribalism and eventually destroys societies. In this case, provided the Commission is following rules and bolstering our existing laws and norms, I approve of their work, and see it as essential if we are to try to keep our system of governance together. Trump’s administration crossed many lines, desecrated many norms that kept society working, and if both sides were to stoop so low our country would become as low-functioning as Russia. Or even were one party to consistently embrace that total-war mentality. I understand (and reject) the notion that the new and threatening social norms that Progressives have been pushing somehow justify ripping down governance norms; ripping another pillar from our society just makes it more likely to fall, to the detriment of all. We can, with effort, push progressive norms back out. We cannot survive our system of governance falling; civil war would result and any such thing, even were it brief (which it would not be; had Trump got more people onboard with his coup, he, his family, and a lot of others in DC and elsewhere would be dead now), would set our society back hundreds of years, with breakaway republics and lingering hatred that makes our current difficulties seem mild. We would no longer be a superpower at the end of it, and our preferred international economic model and political order would fail.
Optimism (to survive with one’s views facing the world) and Swagger (to get what you want by portraying your ideologies as inevitable) are two reasons why we need to navigate doubts, when people talk about their ideas, as to whether they’re only describing how they think the world works, versus whether their beliefs as to how the world should work are a part of that. Pure theories without approval can happen, but it’s not rare that people are speaking from a mix.
Current Events
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, with trades of land common elsewhere but most of its focus on establishing a puppet state in the Ukrainian east; Western nations continue to (slowly) expand weapons supplies to the Ukrainian government. Russia notably shifted its justifications for the war, scrapping earlier claims and now asserting that reclaiming land the Russian Empire once had to be their destiny
Hungary, starting about two weeks ago, has been under martial law in order to give Orban the ability to rule by decree without parliamentary oversight; the effort has been (mildly) criticised in EU circles, but right now they lack the leverage to do anything about it because Orban’s closeness to Russia means he can obstruct NATO and EU efforts broadly; this reveals a flaw in the structures of the EU and NATO (or alternatively, reveals that Hungary, like Turkey, does not belong in either
Chesa Boudin, a progressive DA in San Francisco, was recalled in a plebiscite; people choose how to vote for a number of reasons and it’s risky to draw too much broader meaning from a recall, but I would like to think that this is part of a broader movement to reject some of the most toxic ideas from progressivism; I hope room is left for more reasonable reforms from the left.
I’m pleased to read about FIRE’s broadened focus; I think they have a good shot at filling part of the rule that the ACLU used to fill. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/06/free-speech-group-first-amendment-00037320
There was an assassination attempt on Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh; political violence is very dangerous to a society; fortunately I suspect only a very thin percentage of progressives (and almost nobody else) approves of such things. Thin percentages don’t mean political figures (or anyone else in the public eye) is safe; it just takes one vigilante to potentially kill someone, and unfortunately the politics of such attempts increase polarisation as everyone on the side that feels targeted will assume that far more people on the other than actually do approve of such attempts; some further polarise by imagining rules that would disincentivise such attempts and fume that those rules are not implemented
The Washington Post, frequently embarrassed by activism by its employees causing it to act ridiculously woke, recently had an embarrassing scandal where they suspended a writer for a month over retweeting a spicy joke on Twitter (I hope this is a teachable moment and will be an example of why Progressive social norms are not desirable for society)
Reviewlets
Infernax (video game) - This game really wants to be Castlevania 2, and mostly succeeds. It’s different enough to be interesting, and has enough depth to be be worth some time. The music isn’t quite there, and the platforming is harder (which is unwelcome to this degree); I made it about 3/4 of the way through before I hit a spot (a level where one gets the forward charge) where I failed enough to decide not to go any further, but I was having a good time until that point
Fangs (comic book) - It’s a cute, short romance between a vampire and a werewolf, with observational humour and not a lot of plot. That’s what I expected when I bought it, and it delivered exactly that (I’ve enjoyed the artist’s works for a long time)
Signal to Noise (nylund book, about halfway through) - Many years ago I bought and enjoyed the sequel; recently I ordered and am enjoying the original. It’s hard to judge how hard/soft this sci-fi is, but so far it’s enjoyable and it’s neat to see the backstory of some of the characters from the sequel. I already like Nylund’s writing style, so reading it is going down smooth. Good experience.
Amusements
Hearing about these (silent chambers) makes me one to either try it, or to live in a house where I could build one. It sounds appealing/interesting (I may find out that I wouldn’t like it if I tried it, of course). This, I think, is something we should be doing more rather than amusement parks; more options to let us intellectually explore our limits. (I also have a coworker who resembles the presenter, which is a bit weird):
This small choir has nice covers of a lot of different music (sans instruments); Baba Yetu is a particularly nice song (also cool that its composer, Christopher Tin, showed up to express his approval):
Writings
Berlin trip summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u5kakTkHU1QM6mlTIgF6DvHlIyo-LnOfAsvd_Jwsqgs/
Recent Music
Falling Leaves - Billy Talent - I sometimes think about what it would look like to redo/elaborate on this song. It’s a great basis, even if it feels incomplete; the voices (using the technical term here, mind) have a very simple/math-y relationship with each other, which is what makes it so tempting to mess with
Lemon Tree - Post Malone - I’m pretty sure the singer’s voice is manipulated here (not absolutely sure); the lumbering pacing of the song feels like a walk through a forest. I’m deliberately not learning anything about the artist because often R&B personalities irritate me (even more than most rappers, who are among the most ridiculous humans)
Kotoba ni Dekinai - Maya Sakamota - Absolutely generic easy listening that could be from any Anime, and sometimes I want that. Pleasant without demanding anything of me.
Didn’t I love You - Black Keys - Feels very late-70s. Interesting to pull out and think about the musical memes on display here