2023-05-06
Readings
Observations of a star growing to engulf one of its planets: https://phys.org/news/2023-05-galactic-gobble-star-swallows-planet.html
I’ve been wondering how mine-grained we might be able to get with using gravitational waves as sensors; really cool to see we might be able to learn about the interiour of Sol with them: https://phys.org/news/2023-04-gravitational-pulsars-probe-interior-sun.html
Presentation on techniques physical pen testers use to break secure spaces:
Towards a treatment to reverse a kind of late-life blindness: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-vision-regeneration-reactivating-dormant-cells.html
A take by a content creator on Canada’s Online Streaming Act passed and got Royal Assent; the bill is (in my view) bad for free speech, has ugly cultural protectionism (unfortunately not that rare in Canada - Quebec practically is built around it), and has dramatic legal overreach, allowing Canada to interfere in content outside its boundaries; McCullough covers this from a different angle than I do):
A (claimed) leaked paper from Google about how open LLMs are expected to surpass the closed models big tech companies are using, without the safeguards the big tech companies have put in place. I celebrate this - to me it was vital to reach this point (both because I want these technologies moving quickly and because some of the safeguards have obnoxious progressive politics tied into them):
Preserving the ability of mycellium to self-heal when it’s in the form of wearable leather: https://phys.org/news/2023-04-mycelium-self-healing-wearable-leather-like-material.html
We knew that nonsense from Maori superstitions has crept into the sciences in New Zealand, as Hindu superstitions have ridden Hindutva movements to corrupt the sciences in India; it’s disappointing to see similar nonsense creeping into the sciences in the Americas - it’s a sign that the gatekeepers are not doing a good enough job that these kind of things get publications and attention: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-indigenous-spirit-medicine-principles-priority.html
The title oversells it, but this video of precision carpentering to produce a joint without glue is pretty amazing:
Thoughts
There was a recent study on the desirability of all-female future space crews - this is something I’ve advocated for awhile. I don’t have opinions on all the parts of the study, but to me the average difference in mass is sufficient. The main point of sending humans into space is to send a brain with a lot of our species’ general flexibility in tasks. In general, jobs should not be gender-specific, but when there’s a solid reason to deviate from that I’m open to consider it. I think equality should be a default, not an absolute commitment (and in jobs that are judged by entertaining people - sports, fashion, most TV) I don’t oppose pay or existence of jobs being tied to level of approval. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-female-astronauts-efficient-future-space.html
I’m wondering what conventions would generally be best to signal that one is making a point in service of a broader conclusion versus when one is making a very narrow point (and maybe even disagrees with the most obvious things that might follow from it). There are times I do one or the other and need to fend off people getting it wrong - more commonly people think I’m making a conclusion-driven small point because a lot of people argue in a way where they only use principles as weapons, with little consistency in the principles they’d use to support different conclusions. This is frustrating, but it’s just part of the general frustratingness with how very few people seem to make even a token effort towards philosophical consistency.
I often wish it were easier to build strong movements that are robustly against both persecution and normalisation of fringe movements (and their ideas); this kind of “tolerate the weirdos” thing is often in my view the right answer, but middling stances rarely get a lot of support because a lot of the people who feel this way easily settle into “don’t care”, turning middling stances into low passion. I wonder if there’s a solution to this.
Current Events
The Russian invasion/occupation of parts of Ukraine continues, with Ukraine having lost a bit of ground in Bakhmut, gained ground outside of it, and inflicting heavy casualties on the Russian invaders. While Russian missiles continue to kill civilians across the country and in Bakhmut it is expanding its war crimes through use of phosphorus weapons, a deployment of the US Patriot antimissile system has shot down at least one missile. Ukraine has also reportedly secured more weapons from Europe in recent diplomacy. Meanwhile, Russia claims that the Kremlin was attacked by a small drone.
Uzbekistan is sliding further towards dictatorship, extending term limits for its current leader Mirziyoyev Shavkat
Ling Diren becomes World Chess Champion, defeating Magnus Carlsen
The WHO declared that Covid-19, while still a pandemic, is no longer a global health emergency
Charles III was crowned King of the UK and its Commonwealth, offering the ceremonial role to yet another person who has done nothing significant ever to earn it.
Talks are being held in Saudi Arabia between the two parts of Sundan’s military in an attempt to end the country’s devastating civil war, or at least make it easier for civilians to flee the fighting
The hindutva movement in India has been bad for the country in many ways, particularly science; recent efforts to remove evolution from India’s school curriculum are another red line: https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-india-protest-move-drop-darwinian-evolution-textbooks
Reviewlets
Tsalmoth - Fantasy Novel (Taltos series) - Steven Brust’s novels in this series are out-of-order, with this one set much earlier in the life of the series protagonist (flashing forward to the most recent “present” at the end); knowing the future of the series makes the sweetness of some of the series bittersweet instead, and so this is simply a solid (if short) entry in the series.
Existentially Challenged - Fantasy/Comedy novel - A lot like the book this is a sequel to, it swings between comedy and fantasy freely with some enjoyable stabs at DEI nonsense along the way. I’m about halfway through this so far and enjoying the uncertainty as to where it’s going.
Temtem (video game) - Picked this up again after trying it briefly a long time ago; it’s literally a very close clone of the Pokemon series of games, not offering enough to differentiate itself. but also unfortunately being pretty buggy. I don’t tend to be forgiving of games that hang multiple times unless they’re amazing, and this doesn’t get particularly close to being amazing.
Amusements
A full comedy show by Lewis Black:
A very patient dog wins over a grumpy cat (yes, a cat video):
A very amusing failure mode for morning alarms in Google’s phone ecosystem: https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/04/pixies_google_pixel_alarm/
Best when viewed on a phone, by a Star Trek fan, this is an Enterprise-D bridge tour with the camera angle adjusted to one’s phone’s gyroscope:
Recent Music
Sugar - The Orion Experience - Has a lot of really weird chords; I like how the song works despite its broader flow being hard to predict
Saint Honesty - Sara Bareilles - It’s hard to imagine many people who could cover this song; the vocals are amazing as is the composition
Every Time I Hear That Song - Brandi Carlile - Less of a perfectly smooth voice, this is a voice that (at least in this song) has seen things and brought friends; the swings between her voice standing alone and being backed is a meaningful pendulum
Sambinha Bossa Nova - Sergio Mendes - Music for relaxing to some good drink or food. Doesn’t stir passions at all, but soothes them.