2023-07-01
Readings
ESA launched the Euclid Telescope, focused on extragalactic light in optical and near-infared spectra outside our galaxy: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid_overview
Honeybees are well-studied in neuroscience because of economic interests riding on them; they’re also well-studied in epidemiology for the same reasons. This study covers ways to boost their immune systems: https://phys.org/news/2023-06-immune-boosting-therapy-honey-bees-resist.html
Possible routes to medications that can deal both with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and malaria: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-weapon-antibiotic-resistanceit-malaria.html
Possible ways to recycle human hair: https://phys.org/news/2023-06-physicists-hair-fluorescence-repurpose-human.html
Thoughts
Earlier this week, there was a demonstration in Stockholm on a Muslim holiday in which an Iraqi refugee tore a Quran, burned it, put bacon on it, and stomped it. This, predictably, led to worldwide protests, including storming of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and demands by Iraq to hand him over for him to be tried by Iraqi courts. Turkey’s Erdogan insists that the West must be taught that insulting Islam must not be permitted anywhere in the world. Naturally, I disagree. I don’t think ideas anywhere deserve protection - the Quran is a book like any other. If there are many copies of some book out there, there’s no harm in buying one of those copies and doing whatever one likes to it, in public or private, to make whatever kind of symbolic statement one likes. Offensive or not. I would make that point to Erdogan and the particular Iraqis who would make these protests.
Writing: IBM has lost the plot on Linux - https://www.linkedin.com/analytics/post-summary/urn:li:activity:7079509428432949248/
What is it about “say my name” as part of a dominance play? I’ve seen this come up in a few places in culture - in Deadpool, in Beetlejuice, and in a few other places, where characters seem to place a lot of importance in seeing themselves as significant by having another character say their name. Maybe it’s a response to an impersonal world, or to particular tactics some people use to see little importance in others. But it still seems a second-best route to not needing the recognition of that other person - to not needing some other person to say one’s nane.
I’m on the same page as Tucci here on comfort in playing roles - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jul/02/stanley-tucci-says-straight-actors-should-be-free-to-play-gay-roles
Current Events
The Russian invasion/occupation of parts of Ukraine continues, with Ukraine regaining lost ground on all fronts, albeit slowly. Aided by a major recent scandal with the Wagner militia threatening to overthrow Moscow and then setting up in Belarus, Ukraine has taken some mild flak for possibly using antipersonnel landmines against Russian troops (my view is that Ukraine has a blank check to use such weapons on its territory)
The conflict between Sudan’s military forces continues, with civilians continuing to flee the country. Worsening diplomatic ties with Egypt has made it difficult for refugees to cross the border, while Wagner Group’s recent missteps in Russia may cause their support for RSF to be less effective longer-term
Sierra Leone, in an election that international observers flagged as suspicious, saw its ruling party reelected to the presidency and parliament
Polls
Pew Polling on affirmative action, although note the wording of “selective colleges” as a possible qualifier (my views on this are covered above)
Pew Polling on the US are moderately positive, Biden mildly positive, and the global role strongly positive. My views of the US are generally too per-issue to summarise this way. My views of Biden are generally moderately positive with some major caveats - there are some large areas of dissastisfaction I have with him (pulling out of Afghenistan I see as a major mistake, student loan forgiveness I think I was dumb policy, some other things). I am broadly comfortable with the US global role.
Policy Focus
US Supreme Court: Affirmative action and college admissions - I don’t resent that affirmative action existed, and don’t think that we actually needed to end it exactly now, but I don’t think prolonging it continually in the name of diversity was justifiable. It was in my view a limited-time measure, justified by the horrors of slavery (and a few other sharp apartheid-esque atrocities that still have living victims), not by a general lack of diversity. Eventually procedural fairness needs to become the way we do things, and if we’re to make the big move towards that now, at least we can be sure that we won’t be putting it off forever. There was a risk of never actually getting there because of things that didn’t measure up to the procedural injustice of having our laws and policies playing racial favourites.
US Supreme Court: Another ruling from the Supreme Court as they wrap up this session - they struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. I criticised this plan when it was announced as being both bad policy and as sitting on a bad legal foundation. While well-intentioned, it should not have been advanced in its current form and was likely a gift to progressives to get them on board with Biden’s broadly liberal administration. This should never have been policy, and I think this too was appropriate to strike down.
Canada New Brunswick: School Pronoun Policy - In New Brunswick, a sudden outbreak of common sense. I don’t think Gender Theory - the idea that gender is a socially-constructed category distinct from sex that should be used as the basis for pronouns - is something that deserves mainsteaming or teaching in schools. It’s gotten a lot of traction, and it should be uprooted. Good to see that happening here. I hope we can do this and only this, without fueling a backlash that goes further - tolerance of difference doesn’t need to mean celebration of it or shoving it down people’s throats. Some difference is just bad, or weird, and some ideas should be out on the margins. Not bullied, but not center stage. That sometimes means course corrections where we’re on the same side, if nervously, with people who we’ll eventually have to reign in if they actually start to bully the weirdos. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66061514
Reviewlets
Asteroid City (film) - This was a deeply weird film, like a dream where someone stares you in the eyes for a good portion of it, with props, while feeding you materials for meditation on whatever the heck you might want to meditate on. I brought to the table the idea of “what is human civilisation really all about?” but I wonder if I would’ve seen the same film had I brought other ideas. I might try to see it again; I could imagine seeing it perhaps many, many more times in my life. It was also very pretty. Every bit of it.
Long Cosmos (last book in the Long Earth sci-fi series) - Almost done with it, the series manages to develop a direction after having set itself up to get lost earlier. I’m not sure if I can buy the wisdom of the big act it’s imagining humanity collectively contemplating (the risk seems unjustifiable), and I can’t tell if losing Pratchett makes the series seem more Baxter or more Pratchett.
Dos Toros (NYC-area Taqueria) - A cut above average, highly available. I’ll probably eat there again when convenient and it’s good to have an option for that kind of food that’s better than Chipotle, but they’re not amazing.
Amusements
South Korea synchronised its way of counting ages with the way most of the rest of the world does it - https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-age-counting-law-a38a4a6b47c6864bd13433fdac071cec
I recently went through the bother of looking up a term that I’ve heard a lot of over the last few years - Kitbashing. It’s actually pretty cool. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitbashing
This is an old piece of very dark humour from The Onion that I still find very, very funny:
Recent Music
Tutak Tutak Tutiya - Malkit Singh - Reminds me, oddly, of a really good salad with pita chips in it - the rhythms of the subunits of the song are selfish, and the lurching quality is part of the charm that individual Bhangra musicians can play up or down (Maklit Singh plays it up)
Tyomnaya Noch - Elm - Mostly spoken goth-industrial, which wanders between genres a bit. Like wandering between shops in a city one likes, perhaps
Quiero Saber - Gipsy Kings - Intricate like all the parts of a wave, it’s almost a challenge trying to hear all the parts as they fit together; there are some small parts up in there that are hidden away yet somehow important