2024-02-10
Readings
Narrowing in on the set of proteins that start embryonic limb development: https://phys.org/news/2024-02-simple-recipe-limb.amp
I’m generally technophilic on most topics even when consequences for introducing new technology will be large, but 3d printing of human brain tissue gives me pause; without adequate mapping of what it means to be human and when rights enter, we risk creating intelligent human life that is not legally considered humans, which would be a rights disaster. In my view we have plenty of time to figure this out for AIs as there are no true AIs yet, but for moulded human tissue we need to figure this out now. https://www.popsci.com/science/3d-printed-brain-tissue/
Saturn’s minor moon Mimas may have a lot of subsurface water, based on viscosity calculations: https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/07/saturn-death-star-moon-mimas-hidden-ocean
When I was young I remember my grandparents joking about picking smoking back up as they entered their fading years because it couldn’t hurt much at that point. Interesting to see that it doesn’t quite work that way: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-age-big-health-benefits-fast.html
Elaborations of newfound mechanisms from a 1997 study on genetic machinery that have RNA Polymerase walking backwards (that I wasn’t aware of; it had not yet made it into textbooks when I was learning) show ways to notice this backtracking: https://phys.org/news/2024-02-technique-reveals-layer-human-gene.html
Discovery of mechanisms for faster phase transitions in some insulators with possible electronics applications: https://phys.org/news/2024-02-physics-insulating-material-path-faster.html
Thoughts
Recently there’s been public discussion of American far-right journalist Tucker Carlson having travelled to Russia to give a softball interview with Russian leader Vladimir Putin; while I think in general it’s good when journalists are brave enough to visit hostile ground to interview dangerous people, it’s important to do so for the right reasons and tone; journalists have interviewed Idi Amin and we’re better for it. There’s an obligation that comes with it - to remember that one is interviewing someone responsible for ongoing mass-murder and invasion; one should not interview Stalin the way one would interview Martha Stewart. Tucker’s visit is a problem because his politics are compatible with and boost Russian fascism and his interview served that purpose. There obviously should be no legal consequences for this for him, but this (like a lot of the rest of Tucker’s career) should be remembered as further cementing him in despicable fringes of our politics.
Tonight on the way back from seeing a film with a friend, a homeless person walked up and interrupted our discussion on the filming of 2001, demanding money. My friend, being more polite, gave the homeless guy some change, and he then turned to me, when I said I wouldn’t be giving him money; he demanded a reason and I said I don’t like being asked for money. After some more words, I told my friend I was going to leave rather than argue with a bum, and the bum followed me, called me some expletives, spat on me a few times as I descended the stairs to the subway, and tried to get me to fight him. I’m neither so agreeable that I’ll be polite to bums nor hotblooded enough to be baited into a fight with one; I think this is the best stance for people in general. We should be kind to the homeless through institutions, not personally. Immediately scoop them off the street, into centres to get them dry and clean, and have social workers get started on any mental health issues and job training if they’re capable of life in the outside world. That fixes the problem. Being kind to them personally is at best neutral and often a hinderance to that. Annoyed that I need to shower off bum spit tonight though.
Current Events
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen little motion; the ruins of Avdiivka are seeing Russian advances, Zelenskyy appointed Syrsky to lead Ukraine’s armed forces
Israel’s invasion of Gaza is set to invade Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip; videos of the rest of Gaza suggest it has significantly been reduced to rubble. Political support for reduced western funding and support for Israel seems to be arriving, but too late.
India’s hindu-supremacist government is continuing to go after Islam, slow-walking the transfer of a mosque into a temple: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/6/in-modis-constituency-varanasi-indias-next-temple-mosque-spat-explodes
Far-right Argentine leader Milei suffered a (welcome in my view) political failure when his first piece of legislation that would’ve gutted the government fell flat with the governors; it’s unclear how much damage he will be able to do during his Presidency, but this is a good sign
More cases of Modi’s intolerant hindutva governing philosophy using selective enforcement of property paperwork as a way to demolish Mosques: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/9/at-least-five-killed-in-protest-over-mosque-demolition-in-north-indian-town
President Geingob of Nambia died of old age, with his successor (about the same age at 82) stepping into the role
Azerbaijan held a sham election, with a 92% vote percentage for the incumbent
Pakistan held parliamentary elections, with followers of corrupt former President Imran Khan having won the largest bloc of seats (but not an overall majority) in Parliament
Polls
I find sports culture weird, but I’m also not into Valentine’s Day (there are lot of day-focused cultural things that I opt-out of). Here’s a Marist Poll on that specifically: https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/februarys-super-battle/
Although there’s a partisian divide, it looks like in the US there’s broad support ( https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/07/bipartisan-support-for-early-in-person-voting-voter-id-election-day-national-holiday/ ) for more flexible voting; I generally share this enthusiasm as while I think it’s worth thinking about security (and I view progressive efforts to let noncitizens fote to be deeply misguided), that should not be an excuse to let voting be hard.
Another Pew Poll on athists ( https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/07/8-facts-about-atheists/ ); I think I mostly am in the described mainstream for the term, and I’d like to think I have a reasonable understanding of world religions (even when I don’t always know everything about the surface-level elements like the holidays)
Policy Focus
It’s interesting to read about groups-called-centrists looking to push progressives aside in California; I think this is long overdue in the country, both in progressive-dominated areas and within the left in general. My political donations have often been to help a fellow liberal against a progressive, and more broadly helping political liberalism become the voice of the left again. I’d need to study these groups to know if I consider them centrist or liberal (by my terms) before I’d consider funding them, and I’m not sure my finds are best spent on movements so far from home (I’ve decided not to even visit California again unless I can’t help it because of Progressive cultural overreach) https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/san-francisco-progressives-centrists-00140690
While I think the intent is good behind allowing service dogs to help the blind through spaces, the legal mechanism of service dogs has been abused (emotional support animals should not be recognised at all), and even on its face I think it makes the wrong calls; store owners should be permitted to exclude all animals, regardless of service status from their stores. Store owners/employees may be allergic to dander, they may have trauma relating to dogs, they may have many other reasons, and deciding they just must cope is in my view the wrong call for the small minority of people who legitimately need service animals (and the other set of people who fake it because like most people they like having their pets around).
Last year in August I wrote about the ABA considering putting free speech requirements into their accreditation process; this is now in place. I think it’s good policy, although it’s unfortunate that it’s needed because these are the rules that all academia should be following (and DEI and related defects should be pared back to make room for robust academic free speech): https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/aba-midyear-2024-resolution-300
The Wall of Shame
This is a “dumbest take” entry (not bad for any kind of real-world direction implied, but just for a bad argument), but here Patrick Chomet of Samsung argues that the idea of AI-generated photos as a category is not distinguishable from real photos: https://www.techradar.com/phones/samsung-galaxy-phones/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-real-picture-samsung-defends-ai-photo-editing-on-galaxy-s24
Reviewlets
Deep Extra Hot Hot Mix (indian trail mix) - This is really good. It goes very light on the raisins (which in my view usually ruin trail mixes), and has a general indian food flavour, making it more interesting and tasty than most trail mixes; this is my go-to snack
Deep Paneer Tikka (TV dinner) - It’s hard to do a TV dinner will and this doesn’t make it.
Enshouded (video game) - I must have a hunger for games with a survival element, given how much I’m enjoying this and Palworld; this has a lot of UI problems, but it has a deeper base-building element (hoping the area covered by one’s base increases) and a mix’n’match class progression system that reminds me of Kingdoms of Amalur. I’m not sure I have space in my head to play this and Palworld at the same time so I’m likely to set it aside soon (hopefully when I come back they’ll have fixed that UI stuff) but I’m looking forward to playing it.
Crystal Project (video game) - Final Fantasy 1 mixed with a bit of Crosscode; unlike Palworld (which is a jumble of all sorts of recent games) this one is so close to its inspiration that it feels a bit weird. Still, amusing and different enough from other games I’m playing so far that I’m mixing it into what I’m playing, for now. Music is just okay - nothing particularly memorable in either a good or a bad way, even though they go through the effort of crediting the composers (I wish more games did this; it was years before I knew the name of Yasunori Mitsuda, one of the more interesting composers of the modern era)
Boy and the Heron (Gibli film) - Dreamlike, far more action-oriented than I expected, and it steers well clear of easy messages; I really liked it
Amusements
I’ve been getting into Irish comedian Dylan Moran; this is his hilariously weird take on 50 Shades of Grey:
A robot dog from CERN:
A wolf helping to raise its siblings:
Recent Music
Little Big Boy - Madds Buckley - Some nice jazz from a fairly weird musician
Tongues and Teeth - Crane Wives - Lively folk, cool that all the voices in the song have something cool to do
I Choose You - Sara Bareilles - I get a little flavouring of Regina Spektor’s musical sensibilities in here, although Spektor is better for her strategy while Sara Bareilles is more for tactics - Spektor has better writing and her music is pretty in the larger arcs, while Bareilles is more lively and is really pretty in the small arcs. At about the 2-minute-twenty mark there’s a really nice transition followed by another one.
Putting on the Ritz - Taco - Such a weird song and music video, it’s hard to guess the decade in which it was produced (although it’s not hard to look up)