2022-10-15
Readings
I know we shouldn’t actually be worried about things like this (although sometimes physicists and sci-fi writers worry about false vacuum transitions), but it’s interesting to hear about a huge gamma ray burst: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-record-breaking-gamma-ray-possibly-powerful-explosion.html
Bumblebee memories are very narrowly purposed: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-bumblebees-poor-memories.html
A nice review of the Voyager missions:
Cool materials-science research at the smallest scales: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-physicists-probe-astonishing-morphing-properties.html
Science communications is difficult even when the incentives are not all wrong; this shows how wrong it can go:
Likewise for linguistics and the American misconception that schwa is never stressed in American dialects of English:
MinuteEarth distinguishes two types of weather and why weather forecasting being only able to really track one of them limits accuracy:
Genetic exchange between mtDNA and DNA: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-route-evolution-dna-mitochondria-genomes.html
Thoughts
I recently came across someone making what I think of as an interesting argument-bad-move; they were arguing against the idea that the population of the planet should increase, and their argument was to challenge anyone disagreeing with them to identify particular people that should not exist. It’s not hard to find ways this logic fails - going over the weight limit on a bridge or elevator doesn’t require we identify particular people who shouldn’t be on it, but the way the argument is made is to rely on a general and healthy human disinclination to want people killed, hoping to conflate that with people never having been born to begin with. The tack I actually took was to note that by not choosing to have sex with everyone we meet, we’re eliminating a lot of future humans and to ask whether that’s immoral (didn’t get a response, unsurprisingly, given how fiddly the argument already had gotten with his tack)
I recently watched another tech talk by one of the developers from the Far Cry series of games, and I appreciate that GDC and other fora are making for a kind of academic/publication culture for tech. Particularly because it’s easy to imagine an alternative where game companies want to keep all this very proprietary
Writings: I jotted down my policy preferences on immigration: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18eNO2ZxlezkDesOVbDZoOtOhD-JKGyi-T3HIp-Sq-gk/
Current Events
Ukraine - The aftermath of damage to a bridge between Crimea and Russia is a fresh launch of missiles at Kiev, while Russia looks to be interested in peace talks that would validate its land theft, while Ukraine’s forces continue to press to retake land. Meanwhile, a few US celebrities including Elon Musk are siding with Russia in the conflict (hopefully diminishing their credibility on all issues in the future)
Protests in Iran continue - I still doubt there will be longer-term effects (as much as I would welcome some political changes) because states don’t topple that easily, and because it’s hard to tell from the outside the difference between a protest that has the support of 5 percent of a population and one that has the support of 55 percent, but it’s surprising the protests have gone on for this long (despite the predictable response)
Liz Truss’s leadership in the UK is proving to be bumpy, with some of her economic policy commitments rolling back and without any early political wins
Reviewlets
First Among Sequels (Thursday Next novel) - This series does an interesting job at exploring themes of adult life while remaining entertaining; usually fiction seems to focus on teenagers (presumably for widest audience). Which is a shame because responsibilities that feel real and important are a good plot driver. I’m enjoying this reread while thinking about how its flavour differs from those earlier in the series (and presumably side-driven by the author aging)
Bloody Acquistions (Fred the Vampire Accountant novel) - I didn’t expect the series to grow on me so much; I started it as a light distraction, partly bored at the start by the archetype that feels tightly tailored to a certain kind of audience, but it has acquired some depth as it goes on and the writing gets to be pretty good too. There are some interesting meditations on power and society in there too
Kung-Fu Hustle (wuxia film) - recently rewartched this; had a great time. It’s not particularly deep, but it’s stylish, has great set design, and after one’s second watch it turns into something that’s a great comfort watch in the background. Stephen Chow’s films are generally like this
Deathloop (video game) - I recently replayed this to see the new ending, but found myself preferring to (re) end the game on the ending I actually prefer; Deathloop is a fun Dishonoured-with-guns game, keeping the fun mystic powers, bringing back an enjoyable kick attack from other games of theirs, and having a rocking soundtrack. I had a great time the first time, although the recent replay was far less deep because I still remember the game quite well; the learning is a big part of it so replay value is diminished, which is a shame for a game that’s that good
Amusements
Elephants being as intelligent as they are, I wonder if we might not need to feel this is overanthropomisation:
A Hames Joffman compilation of James Hoffman’s quips about pain:
Having a Samoyed, I am amused at the idea here for keeping them comfortable in the summer:
This is a cute idea. No idea if it will work out - an Oregon Trail musical/movie: https://collider.com/the-oregon-trail-movie-musical-josh-gordon-will-speck-benj-pasek-justin-paul/
Recent Music
My protector - Mesh - I’ve been looking for darkwave music that’s been made more recently than the 90s-2000s; it seems the genre has shrunken (or changed to unrecognisability); this is as close an example as I’ve found, and it’s from 2016. Good stuff, but I think I need to keep looking; many of the bands I liked broke up or are no longer active
In the Still of the Night - DeVision - In looking for more of the above, I found a band that reminds me of Covenant at its more melodic
Alien - Baku Baku Dokin - This is from the Katamari Damashii series - it’s a strange tune that’s not particularly tone-based but is not rap, by a band that does a lot of strange experimental music. And maybe it’s a little more like rap than I thought.
Last Day on Earth - Beborn Beton - This band at its best, a song about gratitude, with music that’s flavoured like an echo