2022-10-01
Readings
IQ2US debate on processed foods - I don’t have a strong opinion on this, and didn’t before, but the arguments involved on both sides were illuminating and the way one votes probably depend on the precise way one parses the premise (namely, whether one’s talking about all current and future processed foods, legislation on the current foods as a whole, or something else):
Exploration of how culture impacts mask-wearing in Japan and how hard it can be to loosen cultural practices that are reinforced by conformity:
There are a lot of potential lessons learned from this investigation of a transit project gone wrong: a large scale north-south railway in the UK - I wonder whether eliminating flexibility on some of the unexpected costs (e.g. preventing negotiation on eminent domain and blocking environmental considerations after the initial project approval) could have kept costs down and are otherwise workable:
Cool and interesting investigation of Shaft Drive bicycles as an alternative to the chain design we’re all familiar with:
This is more about the story of the obsession that drives a lot of scientific research than the result, but it is a great story: https://phys.org/news/2022-09-scientist-holy-grails-physical-chemistry.html
Possible explanation for geological activity on dwarf planet Ceres: https://www.space.com/ceres-radioactive-heat-geology-formation-history
Advances in being able to tweak properties of light that may be useful in quantum computing: https://phys.org/news/2022-09-quantum-technology-unprecedented-captured.html
Thoughts
Over a decade ago, I first heard of recycled plots in the form of hearing that the (classic, not remake) DrWho story “Shada”, after it was clear it was never going to be produced, was reworked by Douglas Adams (who wrote it) into a Dirk Gently plot; this started my distaste for rewrites - knowing that an author has a story to tell and they can just scrape off one world and set of characters and drop it into another offends me. In a more ideal world, stories would I think always be tailored to their world and characters so we never get that weird feeling that some character’s lines don’t fit them at all. Franchises tend to be particularly bad about this
Recently on Twitter, someone I follow made a theoretical out of a question from someone else I follow, asking roughly in what circumstances might I use a pistol to defend varying amounts or types of my property from theft (assuming I’m not able to protect it without that pistol). Like a lot of good theoreticals, I find the answer less interesting than the reasoning (and while I’m mildly pro-gun-rights, I will likely never own any firearm); I think for anything beyond trivial value of property (pen, paper, other cheap things I haven’t invested myself into, etc), I’d be quite willing (after a verbal warning and a warning shot to make it clear I’m serious, if possible), to injure or kill someone to keep my property. Or possibly to destroy the property to prevent them from getting use out of it. I don’t think this liberty should be given (at least as broadly) to stores, but I think too often stores let thieves escape because they’re worried of liability in stopping them - some shield there would be desirable for actions that are reasonably designed to capture them
Current Events
Russia’s sham elections complete, it has announced an annexation of parts of Ukraine, explicitly threatening use of nuclear weapons if its claimed territory is attacked. It does this as Ukraine continues to push the occupying forces out of some cities in the Russian-occupied regions. I hope that the annexation announcements do nothing to break the effort to push them out. Meanwhile in both Europe and the US, some parts of the far-right that are Russia-friendly continue to make excuses for Russia’s invasion; I hope that they’re signposted forever so we can know whom not to listen to in the future. Even some parts of the far-right (and far-left), as loathsome as I find both, have a place in our politics, but the relentlessly contrarian (Chomsky) and those seemingly literally aligned with Russia for some reason (Tucker) do not. With the state of Russian media and announcements as they were, there are few off-ramps for Russian invasion that won’t result in a deep loss of face
As expected, Italy’s election gave a fascist-led bloc (and note that I am not from part of the left who uses the term lightly) a majority in their parliament, handing Giorgia Meloni the role of Prime Minister.
Brasil is set to hold Presidential elections tomorrow, with current President Bolsonaro running for reelection (and setting the stage for possibly disregarding the election if he loses) against former president da Silva.
The African nation of Burkina Faso had a military coup depose the previous military-coup instated government
Protests continue in Iran over the killing of a woman by their morality police, with some figures in entertainment putting their careers on the line by siding with the protestors
Reviewlets
Encanto (film) - Got around to seeing this; every aspect of it (and its music) feels overthought and overproduced, giving a weird uncanny valley-like effect. Or maybe a stepford smiles effect. That and the really weird “pro-inherited power” vibe that I realised is a huge part of Disney’s thing sometime back and now can’t un-see. To the degree that I can put all that aside, I see a generally enjoyable Disney film with interesting characters, worldbuilding, and finely-crafted tugging on the emotions (I teared up several times). It’s a film that probably shouldn’t have a sequel (maybe some small spinoffs) but probably will get one because of money and how fertile the story is, and it has all the Disney-approved correct messages for families all over the place.
Death’s Gambit: Afterlife (game) - This is a good entry in the side-scrolling deep RPG genre; admirable depth, a so-far enjoyable storyline, and promises that the replay value will be pretty good. It also has ridiculousness with horses.
Well of Lost Plots (book, Thursday Next series) - I like it when a fiction writer can get ridiculous while still being a good read; Jasper Fforde comes across as being a much-improved version of Piers Anthony (maybe not so prolific), and this book continues the gentle ramping up of “being lost in its own sky” that the first books in the series were not ready for.
Amusements
The process of making katanas:
Learning what’s involved in putting together an advert (or a homage to one) was eye-opening; I had no idea what all the roles involved actually did:
There’s amusement in seeing efforts to give people the benefit of the doubt (or listening to social-justice reasons not to) and then seeing them go wrong:
I’m not always into April Fools gags (they make for a period of about 3 days where one can’t trust the news and some are overly subtle); some are pretty good:
Recent Music
How it Ends - Devotchka - one of the band’s sadder songs, and one which seems to demonstrate the hard-to-define term of “ballad” (at least, when used as distinct from the traditional form of ballad)
Cath - Death Cab for Cutie - A song on missed opportunities that returns to the surface of my mind sometimes, sometimes when thinking of past lovers, sometimes past crushes
Heard Somebody Cry - Oingo Boingo - I miss the weird set of musical influences Danny Elfman brought to Oingo Boingo; with all the recycling of music I haven’t heard much that sounds like their style