2024-03-09
Readings
Interesting legal case on whether people should be liable for funding foreign conflicts: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-trial-in-france-raises-hard-questions-about-the-financing-of-terrorism
A better understanding of the genetics of bioluminescence: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-transcription-factors-bioluminescence-firefly.html
Looking into “Where the Wild Things Are”, a classic children’s book (that I remember from my childhood):
Pulsar timings may be a way to measure very low frequency gravitational waves: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-boundary-ultralow-frequency-gravitational.html
Debate over whether (really good!) deceased author Garbriel Marquez’s last novel should be published (completed by two of his sons, contrary to his expressed wishes): https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/gabriel-garcia-marquez-s-sons-publish-unfinished-novel-that-the-late-author-wanted-destroyed/ar-BB1jtmgF
Surveys of protostar systems help with models of exoplanet formation: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-groundbreaking-survey-reveals-secrets-planet.html
Efforts to use quantum effects to compensate for microscope defects: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-quantum-imaging-bright-future-advanced.html
It’s possible to learn a bit about knife design when hearing someone working on becoming an expert dissect an overmarketed junk knife marketed with exoticism:
Khan Academy compares LLM prompting (and how LLMs can be wrapped):
Thoughts
alphaXiv, a public forum on publications in arxiv, a pre-print service for the sciences, was announced and I have concerns; the problem is that the commentary is public, unvetted, and not tied to an academic reputation, and that it’s not going to be clear to the general public that what’s there is not really part of academia. This means we’re going to need to explain to a lot of random citizens that astroturfing of these fora don’t actually mean anything, and contend with efforts to legitimise supplements, alternative medicine, and whatever the successor to ivermectin-for-Covid ends up being. I doubt it’s worth the bother; VAERS was abused by antivax people and that was a mess. The same will happen with AlphaXiv.
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues; with Germany and France offering new levels of public support and new Ukrainian naval wins but Russia advancing in some areas in the far east, it’s unclear if new Turkish-led peace efforts will bear fruit (Erdogan has also hinted he may be near retirement). Sweden’s entry into NATO is now official
Israel’s war on Gaza also continues, with pauses on UNRWA funding lifted by Canada and Sweden, the US offering a symbolic-but-pointless port construction in Gaza to help with aid efforts, and behind-the-scenes political efforts to twist Bibi’s arm to end the war.
Venezuela has banned an opponent of its current president Maduro from running against him in the July presidential elections
Asif Zardari has won a second term (his first term was 2008-2013) as the President of Pakistan, supported by a wide coalition of smaller parties intent on keeping former President Imran Khan from controlling the political system despite an official ban; the recent changed politics in Pakistan may lead to a slightly warmer relationship with India
Ireland rejected in a plebiscite an attempt to change some wording in its Constitution relating in one part to marriage and in another to the role of women; while I don’t generally see much point in updating symbolic language or symbols in general, I think I would’ve kept the marriage-centralising language and ditched (or at least not written again) the women-in-the-home language; I see marriage as continuing to be one of the best ways to build stable societal units and I don’t see a reason to dilute that, while I think designating different roles for women and men in relationships/families as outdated
Nigeria and Haiti are both struggling to maintain order with (obviously unrelated) mass criminal efforts disrupting it. In the case of Nigeria, this is believed not to be a boko haram kidnapping so much as local agrarian bandits
Polls
Pew polling on how religion correlates with immigration views ( https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/04/us-christians-more-likely-than-nones-to-say-situation-at-the-border-is-a-crisis/ ); this suggests that while it’s very common to see the immigration influx as a major problem (as I do), White Evangelicals, as a demographic, are more likely to see it more severely, ranking it as a crisis. Reassuringly, views that it’s either not a problem or just a minor problem appear to be relatively rare. The poll goes into a number of other related issues and how they’re seen across various demographics
An Reuters poll shows a relatively even split ( https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/americans-split-continuing-military-aid-israel ) on whether the US should continue to provide aid to Israel - I oppose any further military aid to Israel unrelated to this conflict, and any other aid should be toggle on/off conditionally on it not having any extremists in its government like Smotrich or Ze’evi (I would offer specific defintions for unacceptable extremism, such as maintaining an ethnic preference in immigration or what-the-state-is-about, support for ethnic cleansing, and a few other things)
Policy Focus
Florida has a stupid Surgeon General whose antivax stances are leading to disease outbreaks; it mirrors the stupidity that’s gripped some of the more Trump-aligned parts of the Republican Party, and now that the consequences of those stances are visible, it’s leading to public outcry. The only real solution, in my view, is to abandon Trumpism, but that’s hard because of how hard the party’s fallen for that stuff recently: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/04/florida-measles-ladapo-desantis-00144561
Also Florida, there’s a bill that would ban intentional large-scale balloon releases, which sounds amusing but when I think through it, it’s probably a good bill given the environmental damage these things do. It’s unfortunate that something as beautiful as a balloon launch should be put behind us, but it is irresponsible, despite the beauty. https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-bill-prohibiting-intentional-balloon-releases-headed-to-desantis-desk/amp/
Texas judge rules that a government agency created to aid minority-owned businesses must serve all races - I think the intent behind setting up the agency was unacceptable (law and policy must serve both genders and all races evenly) and that this is a welcome correction: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/06/politics/minority-business-development-agency-texas-federal-judge-unconstitutional/index.html
It’s worrying to see rising tensions with China leading to disruptions of lives of academes from China studying in the US; it may not always be possible for border patrol to share their reasons for revoking visas, but the chilling effect of any such incidents is damaging: https://www.science.org/content/article/valid-u-s-visa-didn-t-stop-these-chinese-graduate-students-being-deported
The Wall of Shame
A Google employee (whose name I could not find in any reporting, although there is a photo) tried to disrupt an internal talk based on his political views; even though I may agree with what that now-former-employee had to say, disrupting talks is not the way to protest.
Reviewlets
The Sleeping Cat (Manhattan:Chelsea Bakery) - Having walked by it several times, I decided to give it a try, getting a slice of blueberry pie (crumble style). Good taste, but it had almost no scent, which was pretty surprising (the pie crust had a normal smell, just nothing from the blueberries). They had a decent tea selection (that I didn’t try); worth more of a look but not a clear hit
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (video game) - Another game where I wish they had picked the other intro character to star. Not quite a AAA game, not quite as QA tested as it should be, but the seiyuu work is decent and the worldbuilding is good. It’s a pity the moral dilemma they decided to make the central plot deceit of the game was so stupid, and also a pity that they follow the Ubisoft-style anti-frustration mindset that leads the investigation aspects of the game to be more walking-simulator than interesting. The game could’ve been so much more than it ended up being. A few hours in and I got bored and quit
Amusements
I know very little about Taylor Swift, but I am amused to see Singapore take some heat for an exclusivity deal they struck with her and for it to enter regional politics: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/5/singapores-pm-defends-taylor-swift-exclusivity-deal-amid-regional-grumbles
Interview with Michael Palin (of Monty Python): https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/02/29/completely-different-monty-pythons-michael-palin-celebrates-his-80th-birthday-in-a-riotous-interview/
George Santos is running for Congress again (sorry for putting it in this category, but I find him a very strange and someone amusing person despite wishing he’d stay out of serious things like governance): https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/07/politics/george-santos-running-again/index.html
Mildly annoying (like many “let’s all do a prank” things), this “maybe I’ll go work on an oil rig” thing college kids may be telling their parents still has some wholesomeness to it: https://fortune.com/2024/02/27/women-pranking-dads-oil-rigs-heartwarming-money-life/amp/
A possible interstallar signal turned out to (probably) be just a truck: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-interstellar-linked-aliens-truck.html
Is this horror? Is it just really weird?
Recent Music
Pareidolia - Will Wood and the Tapeworms - Fascinating and mildly irritating, with a title length that approaches Fiona Apple at her worst (that I’ve clipped here), I’ll forgive a lot to get something that sounds a bit like the Plaid Tongued Devils
Vorage of the Grandfathers - Flying Bulgars - A sedate and slightly funky lazy march with some jazz and klezmer flavouring
All In - Shuffle Demons - Pleasant jazz, although it’s often hard to describe jazz succinctly