2024-03-02
Readings
Thermal conductivity isn’t normally what we think of first when we think of diamonds; we probably should think about them as boring overvalued crystals that have led to explotation where they’re found, but some people think marriage or wealth. They’re useful in industry though, which makes the decorative use (seriously, look at other more interesting gemstones; almost any Topaz or Emerald is prettier than a diamond) and the high costs involved frustrating. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-faster-diamonds.html
Theorising on the earlier plate tectonics of Mars: https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mars-version-plate-tectonics.html
A talk about the cultural shifts around music that came from different eras of how things got popularised; I’ve talked about musical and cinema monocultures before in various places and it’s good to see another take on it (even though I don’t see substantial disagreements, which would be interesting):
Efficient production of wearable light-emitting fibers (be ready for more colourful clothes when this hits industry): https://phys.org/news/2024-03-mass-commercially-multicolored-photochromic-fiber.html
Sort-of-related, how algorithm and site rules lead Youtube videos to converge to similar traits (while also talking about animal evolution because the authors really want to explore both halves of the metaphor):
On the rolling of strange shapes along a path:
Development of machine learning apps that can take a still photo and a sound track and synthesise a video (they made a video of the Mona Lisa talking which is pretty wild): https://techxplore.com/news/2024-03-ai-voice-track-video-person.html
Diverging dietary trends between Germany and the US:
A longstandong conjecture in mathematics on eigenvalues of a disc was proven: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-mathematicians-plya-conjecture-eigenvalues-disk.html
Thoughts
Having seen a sometimes-criticised sometimes-celebrated “let’s use tech to vigilante some revenge against a daily annoyance” (that sometimes gets an equally over-the-top response from SJWs), I wish people were a little better at trying existing ways to deal with this stuff first. When someone in one’s neighbourhood makes noise, ask them to stop, and then file a noise complaint. Usually that works, it’s simple, it leaves a record, and it lets people see that their music bugs other people. It may not feel as cool as “using technology to smash the jocks”, but it’s how adults should prefer to solve conflicts. https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/02/26/221255/hacker-uses-raspberry-pi-and-ai-to-block-noisy-neighbors-music
One of the defects of modern law is that, as it is not internet savvy, it doesn’t cover types of harm like cheating in an online competitive game or DDOSing a site, leaving these topics to be largely covered by contract law and making it unsafe to nullify contracts or tropes in them without leaving sites defenseless against things they legitimately need some protection from. It’d be as if we were to ditch a lot of traditional law and just leave contract law in its place - the result is a mess.
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with France’s flirting with the idea of sending soldiers to directly aid Ukraine blasted by Russia. It remains a good idea; the norm against allowing large countries to eat their neighbours is worth fighting for and is essential for the kind of long-term stability that’s worthwhile. Russia may also attempt to annex territory from Moldova, using militias it has been funding for a long time.
The Israeli invasion of Gaza had yet another IDF-caused atrocity when soldiers fired on a crowd of civilians retrieving supplies from aid trucks, resulting in over a hundred deaths and many more injured. The US is beginning to airdrop aid to Palestinian civilians because ground-based supply efforts have not been sufficient, while pushing for a ceasefire. Settler movements continue their uptick in aggression in the West Bank.
Iran held parliamentary elections, with ideological disqualification of most non-right-leaning candidates before the election. Preliminary results suggest very low voter turnout, and right-wing gains.
Argentina’s far-right President Milei, after failing to get legislative approval on his agenda, has pledged to implement it anyway without legislative involvement, suggesting political instability is likely during a power struggle
The illegitimate leader of Chad Idriss Itno arranged for his main political rival to be killed in a military assault, making his victory in May elections more likely (and in my view making it appropriate to still consider him an illegitimate leader after such elections)
The private lunar lander Odysseus (which I mentioned previously) suffered a mishap, fell over, and lost battery power because its solar panels are no longer well-aimed
JAXA’s SLIM lander suffered a similar mishap but reactivated for a bit and sent observations; its angles suggest it may have future times of functionality despite not being designed for the lower temperatures than planned: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-japan-moon-lander-surviving-lunar.html
In about a month, North America will see a total solar eclipse in an arc running from Cleveland down through Texas (I’m going to Cleveland; for others in the US there’s probably still time to plan something)
Polls
It’s good to see that, according to Gallup Polls ( https://news.gallup.com/poll/611261/americans-remain-committed-nato-critical.aspx ) most Americans are supportive of current or increased levels of support for NATO, despite a loud fringe in our politics pushing for isolationism; I strongly support NATO, particularly given Russia’s aggression. The poll also covers views on the UN and its ability to solve problems, and I think that mostly misunderstands the role of the UN; it too is important (and should be funded) but its role is to act as a forum, not to directly solve issues.
Pew did a poll on US policy priorities in the near future ( https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/29/americans-top-policy-priority-for-2024-strengthening-the-economy/ ) , and here I don’t align so well with the mainstream; I see dealing with immigration, addressing environmental issues, and fixing weaknesses in our governmental structure (from solving gerrymandering to making us less vulnerable to populism) as key priorities. Many of the other issues that polled (not all) are important, but those are my top ones.
Policy Focus
In being mildly involved in my neighbourhood association, I’m hoping to find ways to quash bad ideas/policies. I didn’t hear about an effort to undermine congestion pricing early enough to prevent a letter from going out, but I’m hoping to break the perceived consensus that it’s a good idea to go after unlicensed marijuana shops in the neighbourhood, on the basis that the licensing regime is not aiming to be purely or even primarily technical/compliance oriented, but is instead trying to be some kind of social justice/reparations with licenses being preferred for people of “suffering communities”. I don’t think this is an acceptable use of laws and while I don’t use the product, I can still oppose the regime and hope we can undermine rather than support it. Or at least become neutral on it. The local pols I’ve met seem super energised on persecuting the unlicensed shops; hoping to mostly get them (and the association) to stop just by asking why. Sometimes a good “why?” is enough.
It’s good to see adjustments to NY’s Labour Laws that will prohibit employers from requesting/requiring social media logins of their employees; the personal lives of employees should not be the business of employers. This should be Federal though. https://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/new-amendment-to-ny-labor-law-protects-the-rights-of-employees-social-media/amp/
With the right nuances, the White Houses’s recommendation to software developers to ditch C/C++ is good; I wouldn’t want it enforced and in some cases it’s still the right language. The problem I see is that this advice is decades too late; it’s probably quite rare that development houses are using C/C++ that don’t have a good reason, so the recommendation will do almost nothing. https://www.infoworld.com/article/3713203/white-house-urges-developers-to-dump-c-and-c.amp.html
Reviewlets
Elden Ring Road to the Erdtree Volume 2 (comic) - Very silly and very enjoyable, this reminds me a bit of the old Ranma 1/2 comics I enjoyed when I was younger. It balances between idiot hero and world of weird, giving it access to humour from both.
Wishstone and Wonderworkers (6th book in Hugh Cook’s Chronicles of an age of Darkness) - The series feels pretty mature by now and is a fertile ground for the author to offer illustrative political themes about the growth of civilisation along the low-fantasy backdrop. This one also includes more fantasy elements - not as much as the first book but more than the intervening ones. It’s good.
Hat in Time (video game) - Started replaying this after recommending it to a coworker, and I’m reminded how lovely a game it is. It’s a bit retro, with controls being closer to Mario 64 mixed with a touch of old zelda games, and it has great art and music and understated humour. They did a great job, and it holds up now this many years later.
Fucked Companies (book) - The writing style in this (and intentional misspellings to be cute) makes it too irritating to read. Unfortunate, because the content should be pretty funny.
Amusements
Geekery over the fairness of dice (I wonder if the analysis should be different between rolling dice where nearby numbers produce similar results versus where each number has an independent meaning (e.g. a 6-sided die might give you a number for the power of some effect versus deciding between 6 distinct possibilities):
Given the right circumstances, a lone Orca can kill a great white shark (usually they hunt in pairs): https://phys.org/news/2024-03-orcas-longer-great-white-shark.html
Recent Music
Boatman - VNV Nation and Mono Inc - Mostly interesting because it’s odd to hear Ronan Harris’s distinctive voice outside of VNV Nation’s work. A lot of bands from the late 90s are doing this kind of post-peak-popularity collaboration thing
When You Wake Up - Laura Shighara - Layered and melancholy, it’s a bit anime/videogame sounding but not wholly.