(I may miss the next newsletter due to travel)
Readings
Some scientists warn that certain biological research on isomers of DNA should not continue and are pushing for bans: https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/12/unprecedented-risk-to-life-on-earth-scientists-call-for-halt-on-mirror-life-microbe-research
Simulation work to try to understand deep channels on asteroids: https://phys.org/news/2024-12-lab-gullies-giant-asteroid-vesta.html
Damage to the thalamus after a stroke may contribute to some of the longer-lasting effects: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-term-disability-path-treatment.html
Commercial tea bags may have embedded a lot of microplastics(!): https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-commercial-tea-bags-millions-microplastics.html
NASA’s Deep Space Network recently had a new powerful antenna installed in a site in California: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-new-deep-space-network-antenna-has-its-crowning-moment/
An open vortex database for Jupiter’s atmosphere: https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/jovian-vortex-hunters-spun-up-over-new-paper/
Current Events
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues
Ukraine managed an assassination of a general in Russia’s nuclear protection program, in Moscow; for the duration of the war I think it’s fair to consider anyone involved in Russia’s military or high levels of general governance to be fair game for Ukraine
Russian attacks on Kyiv continue with hypersonic missiles, damaging several embassies
Russia continues its very slow conquest in Donetsk
Israel and Bibi’s wars
Israel, trying to pressure other nations not to criticize its misbehaviour, closes its embassy in Ireland
Israel plans to fund a wave of new settlers in Golan Heights, to international condemnation
Israel’s expansion of occupied Syrian territory has led to shots fired at civilians protesting their illegal presence; hopefully western forces will begin to twist Israel’s arm to get them to withdraw from Syria
Syria
US drops reward for arrest of leader of Syria’s new government - progress towards removing legal sanctions against the formerly rebel group, diplomacy
Turkey engages with complex negotiations with the new government to ensure that Kurdish forces will not be permitted to use the country as a staging ground against Turkey
Syrian refugees begin to return en masse from Europe to Syria
The degree of continued Russian influence in Syria remains uncertain
Burma - The illegitimate government loses control of the border with Bangladesh to rebel forces, with rebels also taking several military bases and high-value targets; China is increasingly invested in propping up the junta
The months-long allegations of China operating unofficial police stations in areas of the US with a strong Chinese immigrant population became more visible as someone who ran one in Manhattan pled guilty; the stations were used to monitor and in some cases threaten Chinese in the US who may have criticized the Chinese government or supported the Republic of Taiwan
France’s new PM is so unsure of his ability to remain in office (given France’s politically fragile state right now), he is remaining as mayor of the small city of Pau
Policy Focus
I am still working through how I feel about this, but it’s interesting enough to share - The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation is getting heat for not retracting a paper that was based on data collected unethically (against the journal’s ethical standards); I am generally very wary of marking research as out-of-bounds for ethical reasons, but I also get the need to strongly push for at least widely-agreed-upon and reasonable ethical standards; navigating this can be tricky (and there are those who argue that certain research is topically unethical regardless of the methods involves, notably TAs who want to cement surgery for dysphoria as a normal and accepted method; I reject their argument). I have not yet reached a firm conclusion on how to handle this transplantation research even though I agree with the ethical standards against it - organ harvesting of prisoners is horrible and should be stopped. https://retractionwatch.com/2024/12/20/journal-wont-retract-paper-that-involved-human-organ-transplants-in-china/
It’s good to see scientific funding agencies taking increasingly open-access friendly stances for research they fund; I recognize that this lessens the ability of journals to profit over access controls, but journals should not be a big for-profit venture: https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-science-funding-agencies-roll-out-policies-free-access-journal-articles
A NY law banning retail sale of dogs, cats, and some other animals took effect recently; some of the local pet stores that mostly sold pets rather than supplies have closed their doors; I support the legislation both because the vast majority of pets sold that way come from puppy mills or the equivalent; better not to have such pipelines when they produce misery
Some shamans in El Alto Bolivia have religious huts on top of a thin ledge that is collapsing and are refusing orders to evacuate the area for the sake of safety, claiming their gods will protect them; in such cases, it’s tempting to just allow them to continue and have the coming collapse both demonstrate how nonsense their beliefs are and the folly of departing from science. But it’s hard to reconcile this with the good that comes from hard paternalism; while I love to see factual claims made by faiths used as ways to undermine the faith, faith should not get special (even negative) treatment and it’s more consistent to just remove them and save lives. https://apnews.com/article/bolivia-shamans-cliff-evacuation-erosion-rain-2a75fb555e0066f4d675b015e6e92b15
The Wall of Shame
The Charlotte Hornets (presumably a sports team), for doing very bad PR where they gifted a number of kids things (some expensive) in a Christmas event on-camera and then taking the things back afterwards; because taking the things back was caught on camera they were shamed into backing down
It’s funny and sad and outrageous to see Israel finding it necessary to criticise the Roman Catholic Pope’s Christmas address that briefly remarked on the cruelties of IDF strikes on Gaza. I’m glad at least to see the tide of world public opinion deeply souring on Bibi’s wars.
Amazon’s film department has what might be considered a low-grade feud with the owners of the James Bond franchise, with the former apparently interested in dumb diversity-oriented stories and revisions of the franchise and the latter thankfully refusing to let Amazon mess with the essentials of what the series is about. It’s unfortunate that such pushback (and even such visibility into how DEI fanaticism ruins media) is so rare; hopefully enough of a backlash against it will drive the diversity-focused attitude out of filmmaking (not that diversity is bad per se, just that letting it be a primary driver in any effort from film to business produces slop)
Content
Failings of the Trump Clan, which I’m still keeping updated (for now): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PCfRjtydXTMpAiSSAcxdTO8Val1ssAOz8DebelsvgH8/
Reviewlets
Amusements
A cute Samoyed pup watching videos (I thought the refresh rate situation for humans versus dogs would normally make this not work that well; is it mostly about sound?):
Unsurprisingly, digital license plates are prone to all sorts of abuse:
The similarities and contrast between these two scenes, one from DS9 and one from Red Dwarf, amuse me; I’d love to see a mashup:
and
Recent Music
Peanuts Theme - Vince Guaraldi - A lot of people find the Charlie Brown Christmas songs to be less annoying alternative to the normal Christmas fare; not being a Christian and still finding them a bit annoying (but with way more musical merit), I instead would rather go with the timeless Peanuts theme; jazz on piano is different from a lot of other jazz but still has the most important element (in my eyes, or ears, haha) - an aversion to square beats.
Nockmaar Castle - Harumi Fujita - By contrast, this piece of videogame music from the NES8 era (game adapted from a fantasy film called Willow) has square beats but really awesome slow-build layering that builds; it’s one of a number of pieces that still strike me as remarkable this many years after first hearing it in my childhood. Unlike the music of Treasure Island, I don’t think this is a flattened version of an actual classical piece (although it’s difficult to get good information on music from games this long ago - perhaps it is)
Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson - I recently remembered the music video and felt the need to watch it again; both the video and the song are masterpieces.