2023-07-22
Readings
It’s good to see research actually leading to rapid industry response, although in the case of bee research, we already knew (here I’m wearing my “people studying a nearby subfield of biology” hat) that because of the commercial interests, they were already paying a lot of attention to and actively funding research on bees. In this case, it was found that changes to commercial hive boxes for bees could exclude entry of wild queens, preventing death of valuable wild hives. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-bumblebee-rapid-industry.html
An interesting exploration of biomimicry in architecture - the idea that at low levels of materials science the simplicity of design dominates, but as new materials become available that constraint loosens is surprising:
It shouldn’t surprise that elephants vary their diet based on their at-the-moment nutritional needs (the mechanisms behind this are fascinating, and are probably widespread across the animal kingdom at least): https://phys.org/news/2023-07-similar-humans-elephants-vary-dinner.html
Weird living robot exoskeletons for cells (sort of, although I’m being a bit dramatic): https://phys.org/news/2023-05-artificial-muscle-fibers-cell-scaffolds.html
In times past, this (a preacher arrested for protesting a pride event) would’ve been a matter the ACLU would’ve taken on - in the meantime it’s a reminder that police probably need a lot more legal training:
An approach to learn language better (that fits pretty well with my understanding of how memory is formed from when I was first starting to study neuroscience and memory formation):
Police in the US probably are generally overarmed; while I think it’s a consequence of Americans in general being more likely to have guns, it’s worth exploring greater use of police weapons here that are nondeadly; here’s another entry: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/18/1188408288/u-s-cops-may-start-using-a-weapon-that-shoots-a-cord-to-wrap-around-a-persons-kn
Intelligence Squared (which renamed itself to “Open To Debate”) did a (fairly short, 2-person-only) debate on whether Certain Books Should be Banned in School. Before listening, I think it’s important to address the framing - there are a few possible arguments or other related topics:
Should sexually explicit or even pornographic content have a regular place in school content
How should politically charged (or possibly fringe) content possibly enter (or be challenged) in school content? Where should content come from? Is there a broad public interest in overseeing and possibly shaping such content?
Is there a broad difference between pre-University and University-level teaching (or perhaps at other levels) in terms of teacher content selection?
(Rufo’s first example of GenderQueer is an easy example of a book that’s not suitable for children)
Thoughts
What do you do with rural areas that are really uncivilised? I don’t use the term lightly, but when areas kill or use violence in ways that don’t fit modern morality, I am comfortable with the phrasing. This came up in remote areas of India (Manipur, to be precise) where rival tribes, in response to central government policies, raped women of their rival tribe and then paraded victims through their town center. Presumably this was in line with their local mentality, but clearly not in line with modern global norms. One could decide to use really illiberal means - the Anatevka treatment - to deal with communities like this. I’m not sure individualist approaches are generally sufficient to deal with problems of this sort, although they may indicate that something was not done proactively that would’ve been less painful than dispersing a village.
An addendum to ideas in this video: I think a danger of “don’t punch down” as an idea is that if it’s widely adopted, it makes critiques of those with less power rare, and in so doing it distorts our understanding of the world - not a problem for those just concerned with certain flawed notions of justice, but for those concerned with understanding (which I think is far, far more important - probably even a prerequisite for any kind of justice) this is a problem. Seeing the big picture of human nature, society and its actors, and struggles with human nature we face is improved by our continually seeking ever-clearer vision. Serving narrative filters isn’t a good way to do that.
I sometimes wonder about radically different ways of living - sometime back I recall being disappointed reading that most mammals cannot survive very long-term exposure to water, which was bad for one of my daydreams - whether people or societies might be able to arrange their homes and public structures so that their people might spend the vast majority of their lives continually immersed in water - could people literally live in pools. Apparently most mammalian bodies don’t maintain cohesion in such an environment (the skin falls apart eventually).
I’m wary of supposedly-charitable upscale food markets that brag about soon-to-expire food being donated to shelters, and it’s not surprising that fairly often in practice this often just means that poor people get food poisoning. https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/7/19/23801008/migrants-shelter-food-poisoning-sick-kids
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with Ukraine continuing to slowly regain Russian occupied Ukraine territory at great cost, damaging munitions in occupied Crimea and partially encircling occupied towns. Damage to the land bridge between Crimea and Russia may put further pressure on the ability of Russia to continue its occupation there, although Russia has indicated that it may consider civilian ships entering Ukraine waters to be military targets
Russia appears to be pushing for a pretense to war with NATO, in particular on the Belarus-Poland border. It’s unclear if it actually wants a hot war or wants to maintain a switch that it could flip when convenient
It is disappointing to see that Kenya is in the process of putting together legislation to ban non-straight sexual activities and related topics: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66079603
Polls
Pew on American views on the importance of US Space leadership - I’m pretty neutral on this, although I think it’s important that the public sector, particularly research interests, lead the private sector and in many cases exclude it for a period. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/07/20/americans-views-of-space-u-s-role-nasa-priorities-and-impact-of-private-companies/
Pew on how Asian-Americans view the homelands of ethnic origin (being of mostly European with a bit of Middle Eastern descent, the poll only connects to me by analogy, and I feel no real special connection to any of the countries that currently map to the places my ancestors came from, although I do generally judge all countries by their policies and histories if I feel I know enough to do so): https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2023/07/19/most-asian-americans-view-their-ancestral-homelands-favorably-except-chinese-americans/
Policy Focus
Nora Benavidez writes about a bill called the “Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act” that would ban the US Government from buying law enforcement agencies from buying personal info from data brokers. I don’t like the name (it’s clearly not a fourth amendment matter if the data is already out there in private hands), and also don’t think I see the problem with it purchasing such info if it’s already legally in private hands. I’ve tried to figure out why it mighty be a problem and haven’t yet come up with a solid reason. Not meaning this to disparage Nora in any way - she’s great and is worth following for her generally solid work. https://twitter.com/AttorneyNora/status/1681340449787633664
A recent revival of the perennial effort to ban stock ownership by US lawmakers, which I’ve written about before (and support): https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4105939-bipartisan-senators-unveiling-measure-to-ban-stock-ownership-by-lawmakers-administration-officials/
It’s interesting (and good, I think) to see the US pressure Israel to stop discrimination against at least US citizens who are of Palestinian ethnicity when entering Israel as a condition of Israel entering a visa waiver program; it’s still unfortunate that Israel’s policies in general are so discriminatory (unsurprisingly, as it is an ethnostate), but it is unlikely that policy pressure from the outside would lead to changes on that topic: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/20/israel-to-allow-palestinian-americans-entry-wants-us-visa-waiver
Reviewlets
Tacos Grand Central (taco place, Manhattan) - This is my standard burrito place, but one that I don’t normally get to order from because they don’t deliver to my home (they’re in range of my workplace though). Not because their bean burritos are good as-is, but because they’re good if ordered without corn, and you can do that.
The Hummus and Pita Company (Pita Restaurant, Manhattan) - It’s a chain, and for some reason I keep thinking I’ve reviewed it here but clearly I haven’t, so either I’m going senile or my search system is not working correctly so here we go (again?). This place has recently become an addiction, maybe over the last month and a half. It is, surprisingly, a chain (3 in NYC, 1 in Columbus Ohio, 1 in Michigan, and one in Connecticut, and I am confused how this works). I like that I can go there, get some southern-style sweet tea, and a pita made with exactly the ingredients I want - it’s good in the way that I like Wawa (I like Wawa a lot, but there isn’t a Wawa near NYC, and a lot of the appeal is that I can order the exact sub I want because I know exactly what I want).
Trader Joe’s Key Lime Tea Cookies - I like Key lime flavours (really love a good key lime pie), but these somehow manage to be so sweet that they wrap around to be a little bit bitter, or at least pretty weird. They’re not for me.
Cyberpunk 2077: You Have My Word (Comic) - This had some pretty great characterisation and buildup, with an out-of-nowhere ending that fit the general “of course it will end badly” mood of the series. I particularly liked the mythos that the Valentino gang members often have (also true in the game, but varying a lot per the individual). There’s some great personal-level mythology there. The ending? Maybe not that great, but maybe the point of the comic is that it’s not about the ending, it’s about the meaning while you’re alive. That’s an important message
Amusements
I admire the investigation that went into understanding this old, weird fridge (and retrofitting a better thermostat into it):
A funny slow-jam coverage by Sami Jarvi of Remedy Entertainment (a videogame studio) of the history of music in their videogames:
I also find amusing the tortured logic used to attempt to justify Musk’s lawsuit against the lawyers the old Twitter board used to force him to follow through his agreement to purchase Twitter (which, despite everything, I still am glad happened, because the old Twitter was bad, the world needed to understand who Musk is, and I hope in the end a lot of lessons will be learned all around from all this and we’ll eventually all be better off with a less centralised internet):
Recent Music
Last Train to Clarksville - Monkees - One of the better-known Monkees hits, and a favourite from my childhood, it’s not a complex song, but it’s feel good and easily pops back into one’s head every few years like a friendly retrovirus
Falling Leaves - Billy Talent - Has some viciously sharp bits and then some parts around it that are not quite soft enough to be filler, but are more structurally necessary to keep the sharp bits aimed in the right direction so it can be a song and rock out as hard as it does.
Indefinite Leave to Remain - Pet Shop Boys - Written in a weird time when gay communities where figuring out their approaches to romance (and when bisexuals and lesbians were generally left out of the conversation, the former generally denounced as “breeders”, the latter having their own separate conversations), the song is a kind of snapshot of some of the thoughts of the time (and a bit after) - the discomfort of simply adopting the ideas of marriage which were seen as very hetero (later on mainstreamers did so while queers went their own way). And it’s a nice sing even apart from all that weird historical sexual politics tied to it, but for me (as a mid-40s bisexual, now very distant from any community) it’s hard to not have that context in mind. Almost like hearing a national or religious anthem tends to bring up some kind of context (to me, anyhow, depending)