2024-12-07
Readings
Artificial rats that can mimic their way into rat society: https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-ai-infiltrates-rat-world-robot.html
Production of long-lasting batteries made with carbon-14 components: https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-scientists-world-carbon-diamond-battery.html
Base editing as a treatment for sickle cell anemia: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-sickle-cell-base-gene-therapy.html
Efforts to mimic in robotics the hop some birds use to initiate flight: https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-roboticists-bird-robot-air-flight.html
Trajectory data for the ISS is now public: https://phys.org/news/2024-12-space-station-trajectory.html
Methods to recycle cobalt from post-use products (is there a better word?): https://phys.org/news/2024-12-greener-cleaner-cobalt-junk-materials.html
A look at how Panda adaptations make them fragile:
Thoughts
In NYC, the CEO of United Healthcare was assassinated on the street; police have managed to assemble a fair amount of evidence so far but haven’t caught the guy yet. It’s been interesting to see (and participate) in the public discussions on social media about this. Health insurance companies are broadly disliked (but necessary for most people to deal with), and because they deal with life-and-death matters and because of growing radicalism in the country, a certain slice of both the right and the left has taken stances I find regrettable, either cheering on his death or just finding it broadly acceptable or perhaps just useful as a reminder to insurers that people are angry. I reject this; I have a standing discomfort with the industry (and UHC is unfortunately my provider) but I reject the idea of being soft against assassination; while in very rare circumstances assassination might be acceptable (for unelected political leaders of a country, or for elected leaders that refuse to leave office at the end of their mandate, even for elected leaders that have rules changed to remove or bypass term limits so their leadership can continue), those are because national leaders are in a uniquely powerful position that makes their power hard to check within the system. For ordinary citizens, even wealthy company leaders, we have tools to set the bounds of their behaviour - laws and regulations. Regardless of arguments that our representative government can be captured or may not be as representative as we’d like, these mechanisms exist, they’re potent, and they’re a disqualifying counterargument to killing company executives whose companies are doing harm. We advance in a society gradually as laws and institutions ideally become more civilised and fair; in the long run our laws have improved and likely will continue to do so (at least provided radicalism and populism don’t change that arc - they may); when we dislike how a company behaves we can use media, we can build movements to pass laws, we can raise a stink individually, and we can do several other things. As we become more civilised and keep working on improving our society, we should work to narrow areas where we see violence as acceptable responses to misdeeds that are legal; it is important that we view things like this killing with horror, not a lukewarm or even approving tone.
I don’t much like a recent bit in the Guardian online where they get two people cheating with each other talking about how their clandestine relationship works and what it means to them; I know these things happen, but I see it as a societal good that we dislike cheating and ideally that we take effort to expose anyone who does it if we find out. The way the piece was written seems almost intended to build acceptance of it.
Current Events
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, with continued Russian attacks on civilians and Russian capture of some small villages in the east; the EU’s first defense commissioner is set to rapidly increase spending on the war. Russia reiterated some of its bluster in refusing to accept that its aggression will not give it a win
Bibi’s Wars
Former defense minister Moshe Yaalon talks about the ethnic cleansing Israel is doing in Gaza - https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahus-ex-defense-chief-yaalon-warns-israel-on-path-of-ethnic-cleansing-in-gaza/
The ceasefire in Lebanon is on shaky ground as the IDF fires on civilians returning to their homes after the ceasefire and with aerial strikes on military facilities near Sidon.
IDF attack on Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza has killed many
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declares martial law to avoid impeachment and orders arrests of his own party’s leader alongside leaders of opposing parties; parliament braved a military blockade to meet and vote to override martial law. Yeol backed down, and impeachment processes began but were blocked by his party, which was unwilling to permit the vote
The governing French coalition collapsed due to a vote of no confidence, leaving PM Barnier to have led one of the shortest governments in French history
The Syrian government loses control of several further Syrian cities to rebel groups, along with much of the countryside; only the capital remains tightly controlled. Rebel groups suggest they will attack Damascus next (some reports suggest the Assad regime has surrendered; facts will become more clear over the coming week). Turkey’s support for the rebels appears to have paid off
Romania held a parliamentary election, with the ruling National Coalition party losing ground but still capturing the largest amount of the vote; a coalition government will again be needed; the result was subsequently annulled by the country’s Constitutional Court due to Russian interference
Ghana holds a general election today
India’s move towards hindu supremicism continues, with a plan to remove protections for Islamic trusts in the country and some well-publicised efforts by Hindu communities to keep Muslims from buying property.
An uncharacterised flu-like disease in DR-Congo is being investigated by the World Health Organisation; the illness has sickened hundreds and killed over a hundred so far.
Polls
Online polls are pretty meaningless. AMNY did one ( https://www.amny.com/news/how-new-yorkers-feel-about-congestion-pricing/ ) to measure support for NYC’s congestion pricing, and while I don't trust the results, I thought I’d talk about the issue; only a small percentage of people who live in Manhattan have a car, with middling percentages in Brooklyn and Queens and more in the rest of the city. For a lot of us, cars are more of a (mild) danger and annoyance than something we use (apart from occasionally taxis). For a lot of NYCers, the congestion tax idea is a plus because it would reduce traffic into the city (some care about the funds raised by it, to me that’s a side matter). People who dislike it but live in Manhattan tend to be the small percentage of very wealthy and very politically loud people living an essentially suburban life in the city, or a much smaller set of people who are disabled and who drive themselves around rather than use one of the services we have to help with that. There are claims that certain kinds of professions - locksmiths and the like - would be heavily impacted, but I don’t believe that. I expect votes on this to break down pretty firmly on whether someone has a car and perhaps secondly on whether they have some kind of value-commitment that might override that first factor.
The AG of DC is investigating a practice by Amazon that certain zip codes in the DC area have an undisclosed absence of express delivery options; the language used in press releases calls this discrimination (as does an angry customer who made the discovery); Amazon claims that its drivers faced danger operating in those (poor) areas so for those areas they us the USPS for delivery instead, resulting in slower delivery times. In my view, while it’s appropriate to dismiss discrimination claims against neighbourhoods, Amazon should disclose this to customers paying for service levels that include express delivery in those regions, and ideally lower their subscription fees for those services so long as they don’t provide the express delivery benefit.
Policy Focus
NYC is finally set to have a city bill that would make those who hire a broker be responsible for paying their fee, eliminating one of the biggest difficulties in renting in the city - a common practice of large broker fees at the start of a lease (typically 15 percent of the yearly rent); the bill passed with a large majority. I support this correction - the way the fees have been structured reduces competition over rent because as rents go up tenants always face a sharper price spike by moving than they do by accepting the customary (usually $50-$200) yearly increase; the effect of this “apartment stickiness” is worse for renters than whatever folding these costs into the monthly rent would be.
The Wall of Shame
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a health insurer in the US, introduced a policy where they won’t pay for anaesthesia for surgeries that go over a certain time limit (this immediately got them terrible enough publicity that they reversed the policy):
The government of Burma had its military fire on and capture a number of Thai fisherman that invaded its territorial waters; this seems extreme and ideally should have been handled nonviolently
I’m further disappointed in Mozilla, which seems to have wasted money on a rebranding effort during a period of financial turmoil (that forced them to ditch the advocacy stuff that they never should’ve been doing to begin with) and which seems to be caught up in the idea that people care about branding
Content
Failings of the Trump Clan, which I’m still keeping updated (for now): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PCfRjtydXTMpAiSSAcxdTO8Val1ssAOz8DebelsvgH8/
Reviewlets
Enshrouded (video game) - Returning to this and giving it another review; it’s been in early access for about nine months since I last played it, and while the basics are the same, they’ve added two large expansions, adjusted game balancing, and polished things a lot. The new areas help a lot with the large-but-copy-pasted feel the game suffered with, but that concern isn’t entirely gone. The game also encourages more strategy, and there’s also some more long-term planning involved after the midgame. I appreciate the changes and look forward to whatever’s next.
Goat Simulator Remastered (video game) - Happy to toss them more money because I enjoyed the original a lot, this doesn’t change a lot. It’s still mostly the same game, with a few formerly mobile-version-only areas added in and better control over mutators (like Tall Goat). Unless you feel warmth towards the company like I do, if you already have the original Goat Simulator don’t bother with this.
Amusements
I love how much eye contact this little pup makes while being groomed:
Interesting to see a weird quirk in Skyrim relating to a unique torch and rendering engines. I wonder if the reason this was only done with one object was to experiment without committing to a more performance-heavy option:
Large toirtoises may enjoy human touch:
Recent Music
Tum Balalaika (traditional) - An old yiddish tune that I’ve been humming while in supermarkets to keep the annoying Christmas music out of my head; I like the riddle-style humour embedded in the song
IKEA - Jonathan Coulton - His music reminds me of early TMBG in its composition, each piece feeling a bit like a gimmick that got unfolded, with fair variance between sections of a song but not much complexity within each one.
Old World - Phillip Glass - This is from the film Naqoyqatsi, a visual and auditory “experience” with no plot, no characters, yet totally engrossing. It’s worth seeing and hearing.