2024-02-24
Readings
Attempts at understanding gravity on a microscopic scale: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk2949
Some cool geekery on propeller design for ships:
From stem cells to dwarf human hearts, used for drug testing: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-realistic-synthetic-human-mini-hearts.html
India’s plan for a Mars rover with helicopter: https://www.space.com/india-mars-helicopter-mangalyaan-mission
Timothy Cain, one of the original Fallout developers, writes about morality systems in games and the difficulty in building widely-agreed-on predictable systems:
How kitchens have changed over the years (coil stoves are still standard in NYC though, and when I was young, milk delivery was still common):
Submerged stone-age wall used for hunting: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2312008121
Thoughts
A writing prompt (it is tempting to grab the word “lumpen” and put it to a slightly different purpose because there are concepts near its meaning that need a good word, although that would come at the cost of diminishing its proper use): https://bsky.app/profile/jboylan.bsky.social/post/3klr43lbyim2x
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine hit its two year mark, with western support for Ukraine remaining reasonably solid but limited; this is far short of what’s needed to repel the invasion. Ideally some western countries would declare war on Russia and send their militaries over; leaving the invasion underway long-term is not viable, and leaving it possible for Russia to court parts of the political establishment in western countries is unacceptable
The Israeli invasion of Gaza continues, with plans to swarm the southern portion, plans announced by fascist leader Smotrich for how they plan to administer Gaza and the West Bank in the future, and Israeli settlers shielded by the IDF attacking the Palestinian town of Nablus in the West Bank. Israeli settlements are also set to expand.
I don’t celebrate the growth of private space industry, because the more prominent players often show a willingness to constrain their activities for the sake of science (namely planetary protection) and a few bad actors want to start new nations in space. Still, it’s news - a US-based private company Intuitive Machines has done a landing on Luna: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68377730
Polls
A Pew Poll on teachers ( https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/02/22/race-and-lgbtq-issues-in-k-12-schools/ ) suggests that they’re often frustrated with dealing with the public controversy around handling hot social issues in the classroom; while I rarely think about things from their perspective, I imagine it would be frustrating; as part of the Left who is hostile to teaching gender-as-identity and wary of the broader ideas of the modern social Progressive movement, I would like to see such things removed from curricula and banished from schooling, but I don’t know how much the decision to integrate it into school content and policy comes from teachers, school boards, legislation, or other sources. WRT teaching about slavery and racial inequality, I think it should be taught without opt-outs, but it needs to be taught in a reasonable way (not implying current guilt or unequal burden and not stressing redistributive correction); I would prefer gender-as-identity not be taught except, at most, as an alternative perspective. More broadly I don’t think giving parents the ability to opt students out of curricula is a sensible solution to things, it’s just an escape valve for when the curricula is bad, and in such cases it’s preferable to fix the curricula.
Policy Focus
In a weird move, Alabama’s Supreme Court decided that frozen embryos from IVF merit legal protection, probably ending the viability of IVF in the state (because if they merit legal protection, then current production practices for them are legally risky).
While I think there can be a case, for incredibly widely agreed upon morality, for government limiting business ties to avoid immoral practices (e.g. things made from slavery overseas), San Francisco has a self-destructive and stupid tendency to avoid doing businesses with other parts of the US (which I think should be broadly not permitted):
I am pleased to see a resolution of another legal scuffle over letting non-citizens vote led to a “no”: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/21/nyc-non-citizen-voting-law-unconstitutional-00142525
It’s weird and concerning to see companies in China setting up paramilitary structures to aid the country’s military, partly because proliferation of non-state militaries is bad for the world, and partly because this will act as another mechanism for inappropriate levels of social control over citizens: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/21/business/china-corporate-militias-resurgence-int-hnk/index.html
The Wall of Shame
Mojang (Minecraft developer) screwed a lot of things up for their Education Edition of Minecraft that really should be done better for an educational product:
Reviewlets
Lies of P (video game) - I’m late to the party because the developer went with Denuvo for awhile after release and I don’t buy games with Denuvo, but they eventually removed it. The gamer is badly in need of some help options in its UI (poor naming for UI elements to avoid looking too much like Dark Souls doesn’t help), but it plays well. The game is very fiddly in an immediate way - lots of charge meters to keep track of, weapon degradation meters. With Fromsoft the fiddly is more in the build planning; this game wants combat to be more complex. I’m pretty early in, but intrigued.
Crystal Project (video game, rereview) - I was enjoying this, but due to a bug the game crashed while saving my game and I lost all my progress; they didn’t design the save system in a way where there is always a viable save. This should be easy. Very disappointing.
Amusements
Someone I used to know continues to do Youtube reporting on mundane life events:
eli_handle_b has a long history of doing funny remix-type videos on Youtube (the Austin Powers in Cyberpunk 2077 video was great); this one, Mr Bean in Hitman 3, was great (if a bit short):
It’s good to offer eco-friendly refills of products, but when the product is a cleaning fluid, as it is in this case, why not just replace the plastic dispenser with the mostly-paper one? https://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/dr-bronners-reduces-plastic-usage-in-soap-refill-cartons/
Recent Music
You’re All Scotch, No Soda - Sarah and the Safe Word - The central conceit is a bit dull, but they set it up mostly so they can play off it in interesting ways, making that first derivative where the song lives
Vicious Love - New Found Glory - Amused as much by the concept conveyed by the song (rocking out over difficult relationships) as the cookie-cutter alternative rock composition (Hayley Williams of Paramore joins the band on the song, and I like her voice)
Maniac (cover) - Carpenter Brut - I usually dislike covers, but this adds some some synth voices to it that feel like they should’ve been there in the original song