2023-03-11
Readings
A fascinating (if unlikely) claim about room-temperature superconductivity - this will need replication as it’s a bold claim with broad implications: https://www.science.org/content/article/revolutionary-blue-crystal-resurrects-hope-room-temperature-superconductivity
The Daily Nous (a philosophy news site, as odd as that may seem) highlights a counterargument to the simple (and I think pretty much correct) stance by a lot of scientific pub houses that LLMs (mistakenly called AIs) should not be considered authors. I think acknowledging that a paper was written with the aid of an LLM is appropriate (actually to diminish credit to the real authors), but LLMs are not persons and should not be cited as authors: https://dailynous.com/2023/03/06/cope-ai-tools-arent-authors-philosophers-not-so-fast/
Weird genetic variance within a single coral, maybe a bit like a different implementation of epigenetics: https://phys.org/news/2023-03-youre-stuck-genome-corals.html
A good discussion between Cory Doctorow and Adam Conover on how underregulation has led to economic choke points in a few companies through shady means; there is one glaring technical error on Doctorow’s point where he asserts that it takes extra steps between platform vendors to prevent interoperability, which irked me, but overall the majority of the concerns raised here seem solid, worrying, and something worth doing something about
Honeybees, language, and culture in insects: https://phys.org/news/2023-03-secrets-honeybee-languagebees-culturally-transmit.html
It’s nothing new, but Ecuador is set to release sterile mosquitos in the hopes that false matches will in the long term depress the population of the species: https://phys.org/news/2023-03-ecuador-sterile-mosquitoes-galapagos.html
Some crossed wires led to some unwanted attention to the fees some scientific journals put on authors for submitting (embarrassing because the journals make money on both sides, and once something is published it’s weird to retract it for this reason): https://retractionwatch.com/2023/03/09/article-retracted-when-authors-dont-pay-publication-fee/
The US is making a push to eliminate Hepatitis C: https://www.science.org/content/article/white-house-budget-includes-ambitious-push-eliminate-hepatitis-c
Thoughts
Scott Adams, comicist behind Dilbert, has gotten heavily into internet trolling over the last few years. It’s hard to tell, because of the way he presents things, what he really thinks and to what degree he’s just trying to get a rise out of people. Recently some of his trolling touched on the topic of race, it was fairly dumb and offensive, and it got Dilbert removed from a lot of newspapers. Is he racist? Hard to know; people can get carried away in conversations, although what he said wasn’t directly threatening so I’m not inclined to pay it a lot of attention. Should he have had his comic removed from newspapers over this? I think no. I don’t think presence in newspapers, which are at least several steps towards being public fora, amounts to reasonable expectations of his views representing official views of papers. Even though he does dance much closer to the line than most examples. I stopped paying attention to Scott Adams many years back when he first started trolling in places I noticed; it became too annoying. That’s no reason not to enjoy his comics, for those who do.
I’ve often found Anna Cramling’s channel amusing; she’s a very strong chess player and young and blonde; her main schtick is finding people who assume she’s easy to take in chess and whalloping them. That’s fine, and it’s fun. The mean kind of fun, but fun. This video is a bit different where she introduces her mum (a grandmaster) to someone as a chess novice and her mum beats the person trying to teach her chess. I think mostly because there’s no assumption there and the person (a colourful NYC chess guy) is making a good effort to teach well. That tilts it towards being a bit mean-spirited, particularly given the video title didn’t account for her introducing her mum that way.
Contrary to the anarchoprimitivists, I think it’s easier to build just societies at larger scale, because the distance between those who implement/enforce rules and the particular events those rules would govern become greater. A chieftan in a group of 20 would have a tough time either omitting or being believed to be omitting, personal interests every time they ruled on application of tribal laws, even assuming they had them. L’etat c’est moi is difficult to avoid.
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with Russia currently attempting to re-capture the city of Bakhmut, at great cost.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are winding down their hostile foreign relations (they cut ties about 9 years ago); I see this as positive.
Mexican drug cartels have recently apologised for killing visiting Americans (and handed over some of their members believed responsible to police), the deaths also having (surprisingly and disappointingly) led some American politicans to propose sending the US military into Mexico (with or without Mexican assent) to fight the cartels. Mexico, predictably and rightly, has insisted that the they will not permit the US to intervene in their territory
China’s interventionism in other countries has been in the news a lot recently; recently Canada has been probing regional China-run police-like institutions operating in their territory focusing on behaviour of Chinese living abroad (some Canadian politicians allege other abuses)
Vietnam held a sham election, declaring Vo Thuong to be the country’s new President. Likewise, China held a sham election, declaring Xi Jinping to have retained his presidency of China
Estonia held parliamentary elections, with center-right gains
Reviewlets
Inversions (scifi book, culture series) - This is set in the same universe as the rest of the Culture series, but moves to a kind of medieval-political intrigue genre in a small corner of that universe. It does so to wrestle with philosophical and historical ideas. It’s slower paced and less my kind of thing than the other books (so far, at least), but it’s still worth reading. I don’t know if I’d stick with the series if all the rest of the books were in this genre though
Walgreens Flex and Go Folding Cane - One of the two things I’ve been using recently because of a torn ligament. It’s cheap, light, and reasonably strong. It’s nice that its feet mean it can stand on its own, but after any real use it becomes pretty hard to disassemble/fold it again, enough so that you probably won’t be doing that. One thing it could do better is offer some padding for the hand (you will likely bruise your palm after any real use). Still, at its very low price point (around $30), I don’t expect a lot.
Premiere Pneumatic Fracture Walker (CAM boot, ankle version) The other thing I’ve been using recently, now transitioning off of it. It’s fairly cosy, and it has an inflater ball thing to inflate the padding that reminds me of an athletic shoe fad from the early 90s. If you need to immobilise your ankle and still want to walk quickly, this does a good job. Downsides are first that it’s loud (ever step is a loud thump because the bottom of the boot is a hard surface), and second that the straps feel cheap and don’t close well without some effort. It also has a fairly low price point (around $80) so I don’t get to complain too much here either
Amusements
I worry that, even with George R R Martin having written the initial lore, this reads more into the intent and design of Elden Ring than was actually meant, although that should not bother overmuch because the point is the conversation and ideas, not some fidelity to accurate communication; it’s an interesting exploration of architecture and how faiths develop:
Mostly amusing because a few weird people found it offensive to see a dog care professional telling people not to let their dogs get fat:
Weird lab, weird results: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/lab-demos-living-pc-powered-by-mushrooms
Recent Music
Crawling - Diva Bleach - Oddly, listening to this gives me the impression that I’m about to eat a sandwich that I think I’ll enjoy. Which is not something much like any other I get from listening to music.
In the Darkest Night - Reminds me of bubblegum music, but it doesn’t quite fit in the genre
Polka Never Dies - Dreadnoughts - It’s not quite a traditional polka, but it’s close. And fun