2023-01-13
Readings
NASA enters study phase for a proposal to send large numbers of probes to Proxima Centauri: https://www.universetoday.com/165116/nasa-selects-bold-proposal-to-swarm-proxima-centauri-with-tiny-probes/
Towards understanding the chemical reactions in hot springs that most likely led to the origin of life on Terra: https://phys.org/news/2024-01-uncovers-potential-life-ancient-hot.amp
Efforts to help cells regulate a protein, MYC, that when unregulated can lead to cancer: https://phys.org/news/2024-01-scientists-chaotic-protein-fueling-cancers.amp
J0613+52, a likely very old galaxy with no visible stars: https://www.space.com/dark-primordial-galaxy-no-stars-green-bank-observatory
Smart concrete was an important advance to make buildings and bridges safer; distributed electric grid monitoring promises to do the same: https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/magic-balls-power-lines-heimdall/
Better recycling for mixed fibers from clothes: https://phys.org/news/2024-01-scientists-technology-recycle-simply.html
More physiological markers of different kinds of Alzheimer’s: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-differences-cerebrospinal-fluid-alzheimer-patients.html
Stable quantum effects for computing at more normal physical conditions: https://phys.org/news/2024-01-generating-stable-qubits-room-temperature.html
The American Writers Museum has a list of works freed from the yoke of copyright this year: https://americanwritersmuseum.org/new-works-to-enter-the-public-domain-in-2024/
An explainer that helped me work through an occasional curiosity on whether magnets can do work (I’ve come to think of it as being a potential-vs-kinetic energy tradeoff akin to gravity):
A lot of us have experimented with spelling reforms for our or other languages (for a project about a decade ago I extended Japanese kana to represent more sounds); here RobWords proposes accent marks for English (the word-differentiation sense is in my view a bad idea):
Thoughts
It’s good to see public recognition that the Left (in academia or not) hasn’t been entirely ruined by Progressives, and that technocratic believers in process still exist: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/05/claudine-gay-resignation-battle-column-00133820
Bill Ackerman has been in the news a lot recently; it’s interesting for me to see myself agreeing with him on one point (the desirability of Harvard having some new board members, at least partly to push against DEI), and finding myself deeply disturbed with his pressure on journalistic orgs (from the top down, having meetings with their board members) to stifle negative coverage of his wife. I can understand being protective of one’s family, but news orgs should not be receptive to pressure of this kind. Judging people generally means we should regard negative norm-breaking acts as significantly worse than positive acts because norms are fragile and doing good is hard, while doing harm tends to be easier. I don’t know what the right ratio is in judging numbers of equal acts, but it’s not one-to-one
I think it’s fine and appropriate to mourn the loss of centrality of one’s view on a social/religious/political movement, and this is a great example of that, but it should be seen and written about in the context as one tradition for that movement, not the only one; in this case, it’s not a contradiction in terms, it’s rather that Hindutva edges out other forms of Hinduism (still a great read though): https://substack.com/home/post/p-140618453
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with some diplomatic wins for Ukraine with little motion on the ground for either side.
Israel’s invasion of Gaza continues, leading outside analysis to suggest the region may be uninhabitable whenever the IDF continues whatever it’s doing. Civilian deaths continue to mount.
Guyana is bolstering its defense capabilities to deter Venezuelan invasion threats, building foreign alliance and stepping up military readiness
Ecuador had an outbreak in gang violence highlit by a gang raid on a TV station during a broadcast as well as a prison break by a cartel leader. The outbreak may have been stirred by the country’s AG releasing a report showing links between gangs and several elected officials
Taiwan elects Lai Ching-Te (DPP, Pan-Green Alliance) to its Presidency, steering further clear of integration with China (despite weeks of intimidation and misinformation from the latter)
Bangaladesh held elections (which themselves are believed to be reasonably fair although the larger context is highly stacked against competitors), with the Awami League retaining its supermajority
The ceasefire between the illegitimate military leadership of Burma and the northern rebel-controlled areas has been formalised, aided significantly by pressure from China: https://www.irrawaddy.com/specials/myanmar-china-watch/brotherhood-alliance-myanmar-junta-agree-to-ceasefire-in-northern-shan.html
Polls
Pew on the prevalence of Mexican restaurants in the US ( https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/11/about-1-in-10-restaurants-in-the-us-serve-mexican-food/ ) - While I think it’d be hard to differentiate specifically Mexican food from general Latin American food (e.g. because a Cuban restaurant might brand itself as Mexican in order to be recognised), everywhere I’ve lived or visited much (apart from Pittsburgh) has had good variety in this sort of food. None as much as Texas. I appreciate variety in food styles/ingredients, and often the typical “American” style is too meat-heavy or boring for me to eat it. NYC has been great for food generally, although American southern cuisines are rare
Policy Focus
I am very wary of a recent decsion in parts of the UK allowing judges to (with caution) use ML to help writing legal opinions ( https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-ai-guidance-england-wales-judges-c2ab374237a563d3e4bbbb56876955f7 ); the purpose of this is necessarily to reduce attention/time spent on writing such things, but that’s the very danger of the thing. Expertise and attention are expensive and scarce but legal systems depend on them and allowing these substitutions (which are not specific to ML - letting them rely on inexpert writing and vet them would have the same concerns) makes it less likely that the legal opinions will actually derive from the expertise that’s the reason those judges are employed. Oversight is not good enough.
Interesting to see the US National Park Service start and immediately retreat from a plan to rework a PHL park that would see a statue William Penn removed in the name of modern activism, when counteractivism made enough noise about it right away. In general I’m opposed to iconoclasm, for the same reason the Buddha statues destruction in Afghanistan was horrifying. Moralising eras are bad for society, whatever the ideology behind them, and statues don’t cause harm even when they don’t align with modern morality (whether that misalignment is real or not). I’m generally happy to see such efforts fail.
Pope Bergoglio recently called on Western Nations to ban the practice of surrogate mothers, claiming that it is explotative and damages ties between mother and child. I find myself wary of the practice (primarily because I think adoption is a better option and that unwanted children should be cared for, and that population growth is a problem), but I think we should generally have a more flexible approach to parenthood, recognising that ties of blood are not nearly as important as ties of upbringing. I’d rather attach a mild stigma to surrogacy than ban it (in general, as a separate topic, I think stigmas are often a healthy part of how societies handle problems)
Treatment of homelessness in America has been difficult because of our existing political intuitions/laws and our unwillingness to open our wallet. Efforts to dismantle tent cities are typically met by civil rights suits by advocacy groups, while many public shelters have to turn people away (or are unsafe), and drug/alcohol and mental illness issues complicate everything. I am generally supportive of (expensive) hard paternalism, and want cities to be able to immediately dismantle tents whenever they show up and remove people whenever they sleep in public, but there must be capacity in the systems and they must be safe and adequately staffed for that to work. Without that, what should be paternalistic ends up being pure punishment and that would be worse than the neglect we currently practice. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-weigh-whether-cities-can-punish-homeless-people-sleeping-rcna133440
The Wall of Shame
I was recently disappointed to see AfterSkool, a Youtube Channel that does cool animations exploring ideas, had Brett Weinstein (an antivax weirdo) do their most recent video, featuring Weinstein’s anti-porn stance (which seems to be a current far-right focus); I grumbled a bit (as Weinstein has openly lied about medical things to the degree that he’s mostly known for it), and then was saddened to see that over the last few years the channel has drifted pretty far into promoting fake and fringe ideas territory. This is unfortunate; they used to do good work
Amusements
Denmark’s intercity rail system looks cozy and comfortable, and is getting amusing reviews: https://www.fastcompany.com/91007526/the-incredibly-danish-design-of-denmarks-new-national-trains
David Mitchell is a British comedian; some years back he was funded to do a skit series on Youtube. This is one of the better of those skits:
Cool to think about what would happen if Terra had wings:
Funny Onion bit poking fun at radical activists:
Educational and amusing attempts to dig into the origin of the word “yeet”:
Recent Music
Poe’s “This Road” was one of the surprise highlights of Remedy Entertainment’s “Alan Wake 2”; a story about that collaboration: https://www.destructoid.com/alan-wake-2-poe-this-road-interview-sam-lake-remedy/
Burbujas de Amor - Niña Pastori - A soothing bossa nova
Me Regale - Luzia - Amazing technical skill that reminds me of Jackson Pollock’s paintings in a flamenco music style