Well, this Tom Scott video, which features a short interview with the (still sharp) James Lovelock (age 101) was very interesting:
Did I know before this that rock-solid frozen rodents were capable of revival? I think I had read about this, many years ago, although I don't think I knew Lovelock had been involved. (If you asked me, I would have assumed it was research done in the United States). It does certainly explain why science fiction from the 1960's on thought that this was a prospect for humans too.
As for James Lovelock - as I have notedbefore, we can safely ignore his opinions on climate change now, but he is still a remarkable and pretty charming man.
If you have watched the 60 Minutes interview I linked to a few posts ago, or one of the other interviews David Fravor has given elsewhere, you will recall that both he and the other pilot who saw the object were puzzled by its erratic motion when it low above the ocean.
This reminded me of other, classic, UFO sightings where the object moved in a very odd fashion. Do many people know about the way some have been described as having a 'falling leaf" motion as they descend? Here's a classic account, for a book by David Clarke:
Very odd. Daylight sightings leave less room for misinterpretation of lights.
Here's the abstract from a Science paper out yesterday:
Aqueous redox flow batteries could provide viable grid-scale
electrochemical energy storage for renewable energy because of their
high-power performance, scalability, and safe operation (1, 2). Redox-active organic molecules serve as the energy storage materials (2, 3), but only very few organic molecules, such as viologen (4, 5) and anthraquinone molecules (6), have demonstrated promising energy storage performance (2).
Efforts continue to develop other families of organic molecules for
flow battery applications that would have dense charge capacities and be
chemically robust. On page 836 of this issue, Feng et al. (7)
report a class of ingeniously designed 9-fluorenone (FL) molecules as
high-performance, potentially low-cost organic anode electrolytes
(anolytes) in aqueous organic redox flow batteries (see the figure,
top). These FL anolytes not only display exceptional energy storage
performance but also exhibit an unprecedented two-electron storage
mechanism.
...when its Right wing places like the Wall Street Journal and Sinclair Davidson at Catallaxy decrying the effect of Left wing "woke" ideology on education standards, while it's the very same outlets which are full of readers who think they got a proper education before modern teachers ruined everything, but are also anti-Covid vaxxers and climate change deniers (or "do nothing" proponents.)
Which is not to say that there isn't a valid argument to be made over the way education seems particularly prone to certain fads and fashions and ideologically motivated arguments. But, seriously, look in your own backyard first, critics.
Trackless trams are neither a tram nor a bus, though they have rubber
wheels and run on streets. The high-speed rail innovations have
transformed a bus into something with all the best features of light
rail and none of its worst features.
It replaces the noise and emissions of buses with electric traction
from batteries recharged at stations in 30 seconds or at the end of the
line in 10 minutes. That could just be an electric bus, but the ART is
much more than that. It has all the speed (70kph), capacity and ride
quality of light rail with its autonomous optical guidance system,
train-like bogies with double axles and special hydraulics and tyres.
It can slide into the station with millimetre accuracy and enable smooth
disability access. It passed the ride quality test when I saw kids
running up and down while it was going at 70kph – you never see this on a
bus due to the sway.
The autonomous features mean it is programmed, optically guided with GPS and LIDAR
technologies, into moving very precisely along an invisible track. If
an accident happens in the right of way a “driver” can override the
steering and go around. It can also be driven to a normal bus depot for
overnight storage and deep battery recharge.
As the article notes, Sydney might have been a lot better off with this system running down George Street (although I didn't realise how extensive the light rail in Sydney was until my last visit.)
Doctors are reporting a twenty-fold increase in
people presenting with syphilis-related eye infections, as Melbourne
grapples with a surge in cases of the sexually transmitted infection.
In the early 2000s the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital was recording approximately two cases per year of ocular syphilis.
A team of doctors at the hospital in East Melbourne then researched the condition from 2006 to 2019.
In 2018, 17 cases of ocular syphilis were recorded with infections increasing to 21 in 2019, seven of whom were women.
I would assume that this indicates that there are more women (and men) than before who are unaware of having caught it (because I would have thought this is not one of the likely first signs of infection.) Then again, the CDC says:
Like neurosyphilis, ocular syphilis can occur at any stage of infection.
Ocular syphilis can involve almost any eye structure, but posterior
uveitis and panuveitis are the most common. Symptoms include vision
changes, decreased visual acuity, and permanent blindness.
News stories of increasing rates of the disease usually talk about it in the context of gay men (or "men who have sex with men"), especially in light of reduced condom use due to reduced fear of HIV (and that PrEP medication gaining popularity.) But this report seems to make a point of emphasising the number of women who are catching it. A fair enough warning, I guess...
I have said it before, but I will repeat - there may well be good explanations for the US Navy "UFO" videos, because it is hard to understand properly what you are looking at, and the aircraft and camera movement effects can be deceiving. I'm also pretty sure that new radar systems can give bogus targets, so if there is any talk of new sophisticated radar systems seeing new stuff, I don't assume it is real.
Also, maybe it's just his physical appearance, but this dude does not sound or look like the sharpest person to be making intelligence assessments on UFO incidents:
He in fact gives me the impression of being an attention seeker.
However, that Navy pilot David Fravor's account of his 2004 visual sighting of a "tic tac" object above the water, which then zoomed up towards him as he moved down towards it, has always sounded to me to be pretty convincing evidence of something completely novel and inexplicable as known technology.
But - I did wonder if he might just turn out to be a self promoting fantacist. I mean, he seems smart and sincere and sensible, but you never know.
Well, that idea seems to be dealt with adequately by last weekend's 60 Minutes episode which for the first time showed us a second (female) pilot who was on the same sortie (in a second F 18) and backs up everything Fravor says on the many interviews he has been on. She also appears smart and credible.
It is very hard to see how their sighting could be a case of mistaken identity: the most obvious "tic tac" shaped thing in the skies would have to be a balloon, but they both seem to say that it moved in complelely un-balloon like fashion, including departing the scene at incredible, almost instantaneous, speed.
It's pretty fascinating that they also say that the whole ship knew within an hour or so that they had seen something that was commonly called a UFO, and everyone thought it was just a big joke. Pretty amazing that it took so long for the story about it to actually come out.
You know the other multi witness, high weirdness, case that this reminds me of - the O'Hare airport sighting of 2006. The object sounds as if it was about the same size, and zoomed off at the same incredible speed. I have never (to my recollection) seen interviews with the witnesses to that case, though.
Piping an oxygen-rich liquid through the anus could be a life-saver. A
new treatment for failing lungs that involves such a process has been
successfully tested in pigs....
The researchers anaesthetised four pigs and put them on a ventilator
that gave them a lower breathing rate than normal, so their blood oxygen
levels fell. When they gave two of the pigs enemas of the oxygenated
fluid, replaced once an hour, their blood oxygen levels rose
significantly after each infusion. The same effect happened when the
fluid was delivered by a tube surgically inserted into the rectums of
the other two pigs.
If there is a similar-sized effect in people, it would be enough to
provide a medical benefit, says Takebe. He thinks the approach could be
especially useful in low-income countries that have fewer intensive care
facilities. “Ventilators are super-expensive and need a number of
medical staff to manage,” he says. “This is just a simple enema.”
One problem is that gut function may be impaired in people sick enough to need intensive care, which can cause diarrhoea, says Stephen Brett at Imperial College London. “It’s too early to say if this has got any legs,” he says.
Yes, interesting point about the enema aspect. I wouldn't know for sure, but I didn't think it took all that much liquid insertion via enema for the intestines to want to shoot it out again. How's that supposed to be stopped?
Of course, the Wall Street Journal would give high publicity to a new book by a guy who has been well identified as a climate change contrarian - a "do nothing" advocate, it's too expensive - and people like "Stagflation!" and "leave the tobacco companies alone!" expert Sinclair Davidson are impressed and his blog is covering the book like it's finally vindication.
Ken Rice has a useful post showing how Koonin's arguments have been looked at and dismissed for a number of years. Just because he has a new book repeating his past bad arguments doesn't change that.
UFOs are in the news, particularly the Right wing news, again:
Ezra Klein did an interesting column last week in the NYT about what it might mean if there is about to be a disclosure of proof of alien intelligences operating on Earth. I think this view is probably right:
There is a thick literature on how evidence of alien life would shake
the world’s religions, but I think Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of
the Vatican Observatory, is quite likely right when he suggests
that many people would simply say, “of course.” The materialist
worldview that positions humanity as an island of intelligence in a
potentially empty cosmos — my worldview, in other words — is the
aberration. Most people believe, and have always believed, that we share
both the Earth and the cosmos with other beings — gods, spirits,
angels, ghosts, ancestors. The norm throughout human history has been a
crowded universe where other intelligences are interested in our comings
and goings, and even shape them. The whole of human civilization is
testament to the fact that we can believe we are not alone and still
obsess over earthly concerns.
I watched the 2020 Japanese movie Ainu Morir on Netflix on the weekend, and I recommend it at least as an educational exercise, despite some misgivings.
It's set in what I take to be a real Hokkaido village* where the old native folk from that part of Japan make a living from tourism. The credits at the end would seem to indicate that a lot of people were playing themselves.
I have never read much about the Ainu - as far as I know, they are largely ignored by Japanese society. The film might well be an attempt to remedy that. As such, it is a pretty sympathetic treatment of them and their (barely holding on) culture.
The film's key plot is about their bear sacrifice ritual, which made it particularly relevant to me, given my musing recently about the ubiquity of sacrifice in old human societies. However, I am not sure it satisfactorily walks the fine line between respect for cultures facing modernity and the unwarranted romanticism of their tribal beliefs.
To explain more, you would have had to have seen it. Anyone who has, feel free to comment below.
Well, actually, it would seem that according to that article, any native peoples living in bear country thought bears were worth worshipping. Not to mention eating, but in a very ritual fashion:
While I don't doubt they are some culture war issues on which the Left looks a bit nuts, gullible, and sometimes illiberal, I wish Blair and this type of commentary would bear in mind that total Left wing vote is not as bad as that for Labour (or Labor) alone.
I assume you can call the Liberal Democrats centre Left? Labour, them and the Greens make up 46.5%. True, if you add Brexit Party to the Cons, their vote is up to 45.6%. But my point still stands.
Blair might spend his time better arguing for preferential voting than sounding like Mark Latham lite.
Update: see this article in Quartz looking at the terrible results that they get from their first past the post system. It obviously stinks. And I didn't realise that they had attempted to introduce a preferential system of sorts in 2011. Then PM Cameron opposed it - another way in which he helped damage the country, I see.
My point about Blair is stronger than I realised - he would be better campaigning for another go at electoral reform, perhaps using a simpler preferential system
It would seem, according to this article, that a lot of American backyards could raise a lot of protein for the household:
People eat a lot of protein in the U.S. and the average person needs 51
grams of protein every day, according to the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI). That comes to 18,615 grams
each year or, for an average household of 2.6 people, 48,399 grams per
year. Americans love burgers, but few people have room to raise a steer
next to the garage -- and most city ordinances quake at the mere thought
of a rogue cowpie. But small animals are more efficient protein
producers and are often allowed within city limits. The average backyard
provides plenty of space, typically 800 to 1,000 square meters or about
8,600 to 10,700 square feet. ...
They found that using only backyard resources to raise chickens or
rabbits offset protein consumption up to 50%. To reach full protein
demand with animals and eggs required buying grain and raising 52
chickens or 107 rabbits. That's more than most city ordinances allow, of
course, and raising a critter is not as simple as plopping down a
planter box. While pasture-raised rabbits mow the lawn for you, Pearce
says the "real winner is soy." Consuming plant protein directly instead
of feeding it to animals first is far more efficient. The plant-based
protein can provide 80% to 160% of household demand and when prepared as
edamame, soy is like a "high-protein popcorn." The team's economic
analyses show that savings are possible -- more so when food prices rise
-- but savings depend on how people value food quality and personal
effort.
I find it hard to believe an average backyard can produce enough soy to meet a family's protein needs, but that seems to be what they are saying. And as much as I like edamame as a snack, there are only so many ways you can imagine cooking it in meals.
Marreroand
scientists and doctors from Canada and around the world are playing
detective in a medical whodunit, racing to untangle the cause of the
brain disorder that has afflicted 48 people, six of whom have died, in
the Moncton area and New Brunswick’s Acadian peninsula.
Those afflicted with the condition — called the New Brunswick Cluster of Neurological Syndrome of Unknown Cause,
for now — have ranged in age from 18 to 85. Symptoms began in 2018 and
onward for many of them, but one case in 2015 was identified
retrospectively last year....
Patients
experience a constellation of symptoms, Marrero said, usually beginning
with atypical anxiety, depression and muscle aches or spasms. They
develop sleep disorders, including insomnia so severe that they sleep
only a few nights a week or not at all, even with medication. Their
brains are atrophied.
Many
experience blurred vision, memory problems, teeth chattering, hair loss
and trouble with balance. Some, including those in palliative care
being administered strong medications, suffer from uncontrollable muscle
jerks. Others have rapid and unexplained weight loss and muscle
atrophy.
Some
have hallucinations, including what Marrero said are “terrifying
hallucinatory dreams” that leave them afraid to go to sleep, and tactile
hallucinations in which they feel as if insects are crawling on them.
One symptom, particularly devastating for loved ones, is Capgras
delusion, a belief that family members have been replaced by impostors.
They suspected a prion disease, but that does not seem to be it.
If an environmental toxin (one from blue green algae has been suspected), you would hope it could be identified quickly.
The recent Netflix movie Run is pretty damn good - and is exactly the sort of inexpensive looking, small cast, thriller drama which makes me think "why can't Australian screenwriters do something similar? It doesn't have to have a big budget to work."
I can't really comment further without spoiling the plot, except to say that it is the first movie treatment of a real syndrome that occasionally makes the news that I can recall seeing, and as such, it has a really good idea for a screenplay.
Of course, no one sensible thought that the minor realignments of some Middle Eastern nations in relation to Israel under Trump meant that peace had broken out forever more; particularly with the "my way or the highway" attitude of Netanyahu.
But people who are not sensible, or just wingnut trolls, like Ben Shapiro, are looking for a way to say it's Biden's fault:
I really shouldn't have posted this, as it is just rewarding a troll: but he is such an obnoxious twerp.
