2023-09-23
Readings
Explainer on why Terra is the densest planet in the Sol System: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/earth-densest-planet/
A cute (if not very deep) BBC story about how a water sound listening system designed to hear nuclear weapons tests ended up being useful to track blue whale songs: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230921-scientists-built-a-listening-network-to-detect-nuclear-bomb-tests-they-found-blue-whales-instead
There has been some excitement at the likely discovery of dimethyl sufide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet and what it might mean: https://mashable.com/article/james-webb-space-telescope-exoplanet-discovery-1
Towards (but not quite there) growing human kidneys in pig bodies: https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-09-07/the-first-human-organ-created-inside-an-animal-opens-the-door-to-manufacturing-spare-parts-for-people.html?outputType=amp
The relationship between eye movements and decisions may need some revisiting: https://neurosciencenews.com/eye-movements-decision-making-23853/
More steps towards neuron regrowth to recover function after mammalian spinal cord injury: https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scientists-regenerate-neurons-mice-paralysis.html
Meditations on the length of the work day, based on a Bertrand Russell Essay: https://www.thecollector.com/bertrand-russell-in-praise-of-idleness/
Thoughts
A recent neighbourhood block association event I attended had a local progressive politician I’ve often written to (usually to complain about some policy) - Hoylman-Sigal. I think this was the first time I’ve seen him in person; charismatic, but with the breathless moralising towards other pols I’ve come to expect of progressives. He went after the Mayor’s recent expressed concern on the wave of refugees hitting NYC and the costs associated with that. I think it may be a general rule that it produces deep alienation to see a calling-out and agree more with the other side, although this is mostly something pols should worry about; they have to navigate that Scylla and Charybdis of meaning-versus-offense in a more functional way than ordinary people do (or at least should).
On the IHRA definition of Antisemitism - I think that defining any kind of racism needs to be able to stand as evident on entirely clean and neutral ground; any attempt that doesn’t needs to either cleanly reduce to it or should be discarded. The problem that too often comes up when people aim to define anti-semitism is they drag Israel into it (this occasionally happens with other ethnicities into it), and in my view this is a disqualifier. People don’t need to approve of any nation, nor do they need to explain whether or how their disapproval of particular nations is fair - it doesn’t need to be because while being unfair to a nation may be (perhaps) unfair, it is not racist, and efforts to build against racism cannot rightly include some kind of fairness to nations in their planks. The IHRA definition should be rejected on these grounds.
Playing with a metaphor for teaching HTTP verbs:
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with Ukraine facing a rough choice of how to handle elections in the country with portions of the country occupied by the Russian military (beyond Crimea, which has been occupied for some time); whether and how to hold elections presents logistical difficulties. Ukraine has announced the liberation of Andriivka, near Bakhmut, while Russia courts North Korea and Finland blocks Russian cars from entering its border. Ukraine’s pressure against the Russian occupying force appears to have broken lines in some areas and damaged Russian bases in occupied Crimea
China continues to step up military drills that may be groundswork for an invasion of the Republic of Taiwan
Libya suffered a cyclone landing, with over 5000 dead and many more missing, with massive infrastructure damage to the city of Derna
Diplomatic spat between Canada and India over apparent assassination of a Sikh separatist leader based in Canada (perhaps similar to the US residence of Gulen, a former ally and now enemy of Turkey’s Erdogan); I am neutral on whether Sikh separatism in India should happen, think pure speech for it should be generally tolerated (even in India), but judging organising for it gets into ground not covered by pure free-speech principles.
Azerbaijan has been attempting to quell longstanding separatist movements within its borders, leading to conflict with Armenia which has been funding these movements
Polls
Pew poll on American views of some family topics ( https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/09/14/public-has-mixed-views-on-the-modern-american-family/ ) - in my view on the topics raised, generally it’s better for kids to be raised in a two-parent household (of parents who are ideally married or in a long-term committed relationship), both because it’s easier not to carry that burden alone, and because getting two perspectives from parents is generally better for kids than one. I don’t think poly (or open) relationships offer the stability that committed partnerships do and think they’re worse than the real thing. I see fewer people getting married as a mildly bad thing because even without kids I think it’s better not to be alone (my own personality defects making finding a partnership hard for me is something I see as a tragic personal failing that’s led to unhappiness). I don’t see it as a minus for couples to live together without marriage; I think it’s ideal to try living together first, with it being irresponsible not to do that (it sets a marriage up for failure not to try out most of it before the real commitment, ideally with most serious relationships involving that). I am neutral on people having fewer children, and on people marrying later in life (although the loneliness that comes from being alone can be a burden).
Gallup Poll on trust in societal institutions ( https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/510395/gen-voices-lackluster-trust-major-institutions.aspx ) held by younger generations; I consider trust in and commitment to our major societal institutions as important for our society to function well, and see a lack of trust and affection as a huge social problem (the question of whether trust is justified is separate but related). If the Left as a whole cannot marginalise its subsets with radicalised dislike of police, then it will have failed, just as much as if the Right cannot marginalise its subsets who lack trust in democracy. This mistrust corrodes the nation.
Policy Focus
One of the demands for the new labour strikes in the US is a big change - an effort for a four-day workweek, with the same pay for workers, and presumably the extra staffing to get the same total number of hours of work in workplaces. While I see it as a long shot to get this in, I think it’s long overdue that we consider ideas like this in the US; Americans work longer hours than most other advanced nations, with higher productivity. If labour action is what breaks the dam and moves more of the US towards redefining full-time towards 4 days, I think it wouldn’t be bad. I doubt it’ll happen with this push (although if it does, that’s great), but we should try to get there - people will be happier, healthier, and it’ll increase employment, probably rippling out to other jobs pretty quickly once it’s been shown to be workable.
In the United States, dietary supplements and alternative medicine products are underregulated, which leads to a lot of wasted money by consumers, and occasionally to health problems; this ( https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/toddler-poisoned-after-eating-deadly-plant-mislabeled-as-diet-supplement/ ) is yet another example. This has been an occasionally-discussed but never fixed flaw in our legal system for decades; I favour fixing it, putting such supplements under FDA review more similar to other drugs (knowing that this will collapse that particular market).
I started work on recording my thoughts on a Theory of Nations and Conflict; this likely will be a long effort, but I have some of the basic intuitions down (that cover some current areas of controversy): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gdCAHRwD4rZieTxbhbBdr5Iq-gGfesA_s5UHDd0rebQ/
Reviewlets
Elden Ring (comic) - Silly and a bit educational. There’s not a lot to it, but that’s okay; depicts an idiot hero surrounded by a mix of other idiots and exasperated more-sane-people.
Lord of Light (novel, rereview) - Picked this back up, and I’m getting more into it this time, this explores the thesis (plausibly deniably) that Buddhism and Hinduism are beliefs set in place by powerful people from generation ships, with advanced technology and a desire to control people for their betterment. Interesting idea (not entirely novel - I’ve read a few other books with similar premises, but Zelazny wrote this probably in the 70s so it predates the others I’ve read). The writing feels like the Ramayana at times - it’s a beautiful mythic epic, although as my two reviews hint, it takes some time and a certain mood to get into it. It’ll probably be a long time before I finish this.
UpperStory Spintronics (science kit for kids) - I ordered this to evaluate it for my nieces/nephews (as part of being that scientific-curiosity-promoting-uncle); the storybook is a little magical for a science kit, but it inspires, and the kit itself is capable of a lot of things. Some parts will be harder to assemble for young kids (particularly the chains that carry the equivalent of current), but they did a good job at making it illustrative and appealing.
Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (well it’s not a toaster) - Went to this last weekend on a chartered Amtrak car with live music part of the way, and it was generally a great time; the Jazz Train was a very pleasant way to travel, I had good conversations with people for part of the way there, and the weird shape of the train didn’t hurt the acoustics much. The festival once there was pretty good, only mildly hindered by two things - the sound setup at the cultural center (first two days) wasn’t mixed well, and the hours were weirdly distributed - the thursday/friday parts of the festival were 2 hours, while the saturday/sunday parts were 9 hours (an unreasonable amount to spent anywhere). Getting each day up/down to 5 hours apiece would’ve been better pacing. Still, those things are minor and it was a good trip (also good to visit a place I lived that I still have great affection for)
Amusements
It’s the Ig Nobel time of year again (this year’s theme is water): https://improbable.com/ig/2023-ceremony/
A really weird race in NYC that involves an absurd number of loops (and a fairly stupid worldview):
A final bit of afterweirdness from DragonCon, on elevators:
Recent Music
Seikilos Epitaph - (recorded by YKband) - A very old and pretty greek song being given what’s probably a fairly traditional interpretation
Tongo Barra - Vieux Farka Toure et Khruangbin - The choral parts, when present, feel like they’re part of a blade with all the other voices lined up behind them; it’s a different approach to voices than I’m used to.
On My Way Home - Maurice Brown - A very nimble piece of jazz