2023-04-29
Readings
Changes to the funding model of Wiley’s “Journal of Political Philosophy” have led to them removing one of the quality-oriented old guard, and seen some resignations in protest following that; a lot of companies that publish journals are making similar mistakes: https://dailynous.com/2023/04/27/wiley-removes-goodin-as-editor-of-the-journal-of-political-philosophy/
Materials that can direct mechanical energy in certain directions: https://phys.org/news/2023-04-composite-material-channel-mechanical-energy.html
A variant of the concrete production process that may be carbon-negative; if it doesn’t add much cost and is not quality-negative, it may make sense to eventually require methods like this in the future: https://phys.org/news/2023-04-carbon-negative-concrete.html
Methods to build low-maintenance lubrication between mechanical parts: https://phys.org/news/2023-04-superlattice-macroscale-superlubricity.html
I was surprised to read that in one of the eras before trees, Terra was covered by giant mushrooms (had to follow up by seeking more sources): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-before-trees-overtook-the-land-earth-was-covered-by-giant-mushrooms-13709647/
An advance in chip fab technology allows for materials about 3 atoms tall to be grown in stacks, possibly allowing for denser chips (provided electrical interference isn’t a barrier): https://news.mit.edu/2023/mit-engineers-2d-materials-computer-chips-0427
An interesting and unfortunate consequence of lawsuits over public parks in Hawai’i: eliminating the assumption of danger that makes it possible for public parks to exist without dangerous lawsuits:
Efforts to synthesise something like Lunar soil in order to determine what future on-site engineering could be done with it: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230424-the-people-creating-fake-moon-dust
Cool to see a geologist using Minecraft to explain geology (and explain what’s real-ish and what’s not):
Thoughts
I worry about the impact of cults across the world, grabbing onto people desperate for meaning and easily swayed by charisma. The gurus of India and the survivalist cults in the less populated bits of the US are well-known; this story about a hunger cult is in a way one of the simplest, being based in Christianity and just promising entry to its heaven if people die of starvation. Our commitment to religious freedom in the US makes it hard to catch these in the time between when they break enough laws to justify pulling them apart and when disaster strikes. Other countries still struggle with things like this despite their different commitments on that topic. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/death-toll-kenyan-starvation-cult-has-risen-89-interior-minister-2023-04-25/
One of the phrases I use as a shorthand for knowledge, “life is a bit shit for everyone”, is I think a good reminder that life is full of heartbreak, unavoidable tragedy, and more specific messes for everyone. And that I think is good for empathy; a lot of people zoom way in on their specifics and forget that we’re all on a lot of the same treadmills for as long as we last in life, and they get envy because they think it’s possible to really, deeply, “have it good”. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to make life better or to deal with genuine oppression, but losing sight of the humanity of people who (we think) stand in the way is almost as bad as forgetting that we might have bad framing and a bunch of mistaken facts
One of the biggest ideas I’ve pushed is that we all build our own models of the world mostly constrained by our need to use language to communicate with each other, with language likewise somewhat distinct between people being constrained by the need for it to be functional; good to see a concrete example of this from SciAm: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-differ-widely-in-their-understanding-of-even-a-simple-concept-such-as-the-word-penguin1/
Current Events
The Russian invasion/occupation of Ukraine continues, with Russian rocket attacks against civilians continuing, and Ukraine apparently preparing to make a big advance (possibly taking steps towards liberating Crimea); the Russian state-backed militia, Wagner Group, is reportedly (and thankfully) about to collapse, while Russia makes its laws against criticism of its invasion harsher
The civil war in Sudan continues (I’ll avoid calling one side the government moving forward as this is a war between two branches of their military that sometime back took over in a military coup); aid is no longer reliably reaching the country, leading to starvation and flight by its citizens; the conflict may spread to Libya
Saudi Arabia and Iran are set to reopen diplomatic ties after talks in China
Mexico’s president Obrador is pressuring for the dismantlement of INAI, an agency that has the power to compel other government offices to release records
Polls
A Fox News Poll suggests Americans generally prefer gun control measures to address recent shootings over relying on better people with guns to fix tragedies: https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-voters-favor-gun-limits-arming-citizens-reduce-gun-violence
A Pew Poll show shifts in abortion access preferences across the US: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/04/26/nearly-a-year-after-roes-demise-americans-views-of-abortion-access-increasingly-vary-by-where-they-live/
Reviewlets
Neon White (video game) - Stylish anime-themed fast-paced action/puzzle game. Not really my kind of thing (I liked Portal, but this is less cerebral), so I don’t expect to finish it, but it’s amusing for what it is and for some people it’s probably great
Sir Whoopass (video game) - A crude but fun and silly parody of serious RPGs, with decent voice acting. About as subtle as a brick, and quite short (I think I did everything there is to do in 10 hours). Has a few bugs, UI weirdness, and underexplained bits; it reminds me of an old parody of Zork called Pork.
Dyson Pure Hot+Coll HP01 - Got this to replace an older Dyson fan that was damaged, and it’s all right. It’s frustrating that Dyson withdrew a lot of their older products and is selling even more complex replacements (I have no need for the heater or air filtering stuff in this fan, but that stuff is in most of what they sell now). It’s still a good product despite the unwanted features and the price hike that comes with them (I like that Dyson fans don’t have exposed/visible blades, and they look nice)
Amusements
There’s an album called “Radiodread” full of Reggae covers of Radiohead; It’s pleasant and hilarious. The cover of “Let Down" is good enough that it could plausibly have been the original song:
It’s surprising that the NES8 delivers enough power to carts to power wireless ethernet, so this is a righteous hack: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/04/wi-fi-in-an-nes-cartridge-super-tilt-bro-takes-the-1985-console-online/
Cute to see cats solving a puzzle to get at some treats; nonhuman reasoning can be pretty interesting:
Recent Music
My Dark Disquiet - Poets of the Fall - Feels like someone reciting poetry over dramatic music; despite the wide gap between the singer and the rest of the song the song still works
Mouth for War - Pantera - I tracked this down because I heard a song derived from some simplified parts of it (a banging tune from the original DOOM soundtrack); great piece
Hook Me Up - Veronicas - Solid beat, would be great to dance to this in a club
The Game - VNV Nation - This sounds much more like a Muse song covered by VNV Nation than one of their own songs, and I find that interesting