2023-11-04
Readings
A look into place cells in rats, using VR: https://www.science.org/content/article/rats-can-imagine-places-they-ve-previously-visited
Hopes to get the James Webb Telescope to devote more time to the galactic center: https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-milky-way-heart-mystery
Telescope time is a limited resource; As for other things JWST can look at, recently it saw a previously unknown jet stream in Jupyter’s atmosphere: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/jwst-jet-stream-jupiter-space
Hopes that neutrino/antineutrino differences may explain matter-antimatter assymmetry in the Universe: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neutrino-particle-universe-matter-antimatter-mystery
Interesting techno-politics over whether to keep the leap second: https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/leap-seconds-could-become-leap-minutes-despite-pushback-from-russians-vatican/
Rise of an interesting rare birth defect causing organ position shifts in China: https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/bizarre-blip-cases-of-fetuses-with-flipped-organs-quadrupled-in-china/
Simulation work suggests that misaligned binary star systems (meaning their planetary discs are at an angle) tend to produce far more rogue planets through their dynamics than most other system configurations: https://www.universetoday.com/163940/misaligned-binary-star-systems-are-rogue-planet-factories/
I’ve had a longtime fascination with Birobidzhan; interesting to see stories from it:
Thoughts
I wonder if it’s a general evolutionary problem for species approaching sentience that the handoffs from individual to communal to civilisation have such a sharp falloff in how civilised we must be - that as the distant ancestors of homo sapiens accumulated enough technical knowledge to have almost everyone usually survive, it wasn’t because we had tamed our instincts fully, just enough to coexist. Presumably any species moving towards sentience that starts wild would face similar challenges, leaving creatures that are just intelligent and tamed enough tossed into a universe where their EEA is increasingly distant and the tensions increasingly dire. Given that, unless species regularly replace or reengineer themselves, it’d be no wonder if they usually destroy themselves and their environment before they escape their planet.
I’ve been playing with the idea of hybridising Maxwell’s Demon with a Neuron, with it deciding when to fire based on biologically implausible information transfer; not sure if it’s useful, but it amuses - Maxwell’s Neuron
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with little movement of the front and continued Russian attacks on civilians in eastern Ukraine. Russia has withdrawn from the nuclear test ban treaty, preferring a wait-and-see attitude, and has threatened to destroy Poland over its support for Ukraine.
Israel-Palestine - The Israeli strip of the Gaza siege is underway, with rising casualties and destruction leading many western countries to moderate their initially pro-Israel stances, and even leading the US to call for a pause
In Burma, the border town of Chinshwehaw was seized by rebels (alongside some nearby military bases), threatening the illegitimate government
Content
I did a Youtube video covering my views on the recent heat-up of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- I am happy that Obama likewise has expressed a nuanced view: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/04/obama-all-of-us-are-complicit-00125395
Polls
A Pew Poll ( https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/31/81-of-us-adults-versus-46-of-teens-favor-parental-consent-for-minors-to-use-social-media/ ) on support for parental consent for child use of social media; I was very surprised to see such strong support for this. When I was young, television dominated American culture, with its gatekeepers having a lot of cultural power and most people (at least, I think this is true) going to work, coming home, and turning on the TV for several hours in the evening for their daily dose of music, news, and so on. I suspect that was worse than modern social media, because it was far less interactive. Although it also produced a more cohesive culture because the inputs were so limited. I worry that some very negative social trends (including the growth of Progressivism on the Left and Trumpism on the Right) probably came from our culture becoming more participatory as TV fell and social media rose, but we’ll learn to fix that in time. Limits on social media when there never were limits on TV seems arbitrary and weird.
A recent Gallup Poll of American views on support for Ukraine ( https://news.gallup.com/poll/513680/american-views-ukraine-war-charts.aspx ) ; I remain committed, because of my support for norms against invasion, to a high level of support for Ukraine. Up to and including the US declaring war on Russia. I don’t want to see our wavering on this, I don’t want support for Israel (which doesn’t need further military aid) to distract from it, and I want to remain ready to defend Taiwan from China if needed.
The Wall of Shame
Coming from an unfortunate perspective on language, some astronomers are hoping to officially rename the Magellianic Clouds; in my view, such changes don’t do anything useful - they just introduce confusion. We should reject the idea that language needs to be cleansed towards unobjectionability; Magellan was immoral and his involvement in the discovery is perhaps tainted, but now that the terms are used and known there is no point in renaming them. https://www.space.com/astronomers-rename-magellanic-clouds-coalition
And on a similar note, the American Ornithological Society shames itself by looking to rename a number of birds named after people: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/01/1209660753/these-american-birds-and-dozens-more-will-be-renamed-to-remove-human-monikers
Phys.org shames itself again by writing about pseudoscience relating to consciousness: https://phys.org/news/2023-10-energy-consciousness-physics-thorny-topic.amp
Reviewlets
The Walrus and the Warwulf (fantasy novel) - Another in the Age of Darkness series from Hugh Cook, this one is longer than the rest so far, and focused on a young scoundrel. I admire how differently the main characters in the series are from each other, and how big the world feels. I’m still into it.
Amusements
Some frog species take the “not now, I have a headache” idea rather far: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/faking-death-female-frogs-mate-male
Funny takes on how medicine actually is practiced, from someone who (I think?) actually is a doctor:
Lovesick is definitely not the right word for what’s happening in this video:
I love this architecture, even though I doubt the reconfiguration capability is going to be used often enough to make it a priority like this:
Recent Music
My Creator - Mili - This is from a videogame I’ve never played, and it’s a strange kind of march sung in English by someone who clearly doesn’t speak the language. It’s fascinating.
Trace the Stars - Fhana - Very sing-songy, and very pleasant (if a bit cheesy). In Japanese, so if that’s not your thing, that’s fine.
Honour for All - Daniel Licht - Also singsong, I like how the beats from the different voices differ and so meet at a 2:3 resonance