An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for May 19, 2021
Here’s a variety of notable things I’ve recently found that you may also be interested in checking out:
- “Big Bounce Simulations Challenge the Big Bang. Detailed computer simulations have found that a cosmic contraction can generate features of the universe that we observe today.”
- More on this: “Ventilating the rectum to support respiration” And “Is the future of COVID-19 ventilation through your bum?” Also Blowing Smoke Up One’s Ass, QI, s08e10.
- “Nature’s scuba tanks? Researchers discover how Anolis lizard breathes underwater.”
- “Fibre-optics used to take the temperature of Greenland Ice Sheet.”
- “Inflammation is a core feature of depression: new evidence from large-scale study. People with depression have higher levels of inflammation in their bodies than those without depression, regardless of socioeconomic background, ill health or unhealthy behaviours, a study by King’s College London finds.”
- “Zapping Nerves with Ultrasound Lowers Drug-Resistant Blood Pressure.”
- “Researchers find target to fight antibiotic resistance. Significance of molecule in bacteria was previously unknown.”
- “New material can protect against resistant bacteria. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new material that prevents infections in wounds – a specially designed hydrogel, that works against all types of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant ones. The new material offers great hope for combating a growing global problem.”
- “New technology makes tumor eliminate itself.”—”A new technology developed by UZH researchers enables the body to produce therapeutic agents on demand at the exact location where they are needed. The innovation could reduce the side effects of cancer therapy and may hold the solution to better delivery of COVID-related therapies directly to the lungs.”
- “Researchers Discovered a Gut Microbiota Profile That Can Predict Mortality. Researchers discovered that a large amount of enterobacteria in the gut microbiota is related to long-term mortality risk in Finnish adult population.”—”Blocking transport to the cell membrane could not only make bacteria vulnerable to antibiotics, but the accumulation of their own toxic molecules within the cell also cause the bacteria’s death.”
- “Hidden Within African Diamonds, a Billion-Plus Years of Deep-Earth History. Scientists Find a New Way to Tell Ages of the Stones, and What Made Them.”
- “Astronauts’ Spines Under Scrutiny.”
- “One of NASA’s Solar Orbiter tools caught its first video of a coronal mass ejection. An instrument aboard NASA and ESA’s Solar Orbiter had a ‘happy accident’”
- “Sleep Evolved Before Brains. Hydras Are Living Proof. Studies of sleep are usually neurological. But some of nature’s simplest animals suggest that sleep evolved for metabolic reasons, long before brains even existed.”
- “Rare quasicrystal found in trinitite formed during 1945 Trinity Test. Research suggests other quasicrystals might form in lighting strikes, meteor impacts.”
- “Indigenous forest gardens remain productive and diverse for over a century. Gardens persist for 150 years after those who planted them were removed.”
- “Climate change is erasing humanity’s oldest art. Climate change is speeding up the process of erosion, according to a recent study.” Also “Ancient Cave Paintings Are Deteriorating Due to Climate Change.”
- “No new fossil fuel projects for net-zero: IEA.”—”All future fossil fuel projects must be scrapped if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to stand any chance of limiting warming to 1.5C, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.”
- “Covid Forced America to Make More Stuff. What Happens Now? A software entrepreneur pivoted to making masks at the start of the pandemic. The experience opened his eyes: ‘I thought, ‘Wow, the US really is behind.””
- “Service Workers Aren’t Returning to Work Because They Don’t Get Paid Enough.”—”President Biden has said repeatedly that Americans “aren’t looking for a handout” and that we want to work. This is all a part of the American mythology, that we all enjoy the feeling of a good, long day’s labor, and that America was built on this tenacity and industry. Though this platitude is often repeated, the truth is that America was built on exploitation.”
- I mean, maybe they could try paying them more? “Applebee’s aims to hire 10K workers in May with an interview incentive. Interview candidates who attend the ‘National Hiring Day’ event will be given a free appetizer voucher.” Yeah, guess not.
- “This is your brain on pandemic whiplash.”—”I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t enticing. I’m already getting increasingly comfortable going bare-faced in certain settings, especially outdoors where transmission risk has been shown to be vanishingly small. But when it comes to indoor interactions, particularly among strangers, I’m not rushing to jettison my masks any time soon. And I’m far from alone.”
- “Stages of Grief. What the pandemic has done to the arts.”
- You want Skynet? This is how you get Skynet. “Skyborg autonomy core system has successful first flight.”
- Well, if the FAA won’t let people fly drones, maybe it’s time to go all Seaquest DSV! “Hydromea unveils the world’s first wireless compact underwater drone providing live HD video feedback.”
- “Apple’s Phil Schiller Gives Epic iPhone Testimony. What does ‘locked in’ mean, though?—”Look, “locked in” has an accepted meaning, and it’s not a very friendly one: prisoners, for example, are locked in. Schiller gives this the old college try anyhow, telling the court that the idea behind “locked in” was just to make services more attractive, so that customers wouldn’t want to leave. Later in the email, Jobs talks about making the ecosystem even more “sticky,” which is less menacing, but — glue traps are sticky. So are flystrips. When was the last time that being stuck to something was positive for you? But hey, Schiller’s a marketer. He was Apple’s marketing guy for actual decades! Always be closing, baby. And so if it at times seemed like he presented Apple as though it were a selfless do-gooder, responding to devs’ requests for in-app payments — which was a then-nascent business — by building capability for that into the store, well, that’s his job. Still, presenting one of the most ruthlessly efficient cash machines in tech as a helpful friend of small developers is kind of like painting a whale shark orange and calling it a goldfish who feeds other goldfish.” Also “Apple might have scared one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. Roblox no longer uses the term ‘game’ on its platform.”
- “Deepfake dubs could help translate film and TV without losing an actor’s original performance. AI startup Flawless says its tech will help content reach new audiences.”
- “Republicans have a new tool to fight deplatforming: common carriage laws. Section 230 reform might not be all it was made out to be.”
- “Bill Gates will never be the same. The aura that Gates built over the past two decades may be permanently shattered.”
- “Facebook Calls Links To Depression Inconclusive. These Researchers Disagree.”
- “Facial recognition, fake identities and digital surveillance tools: Inside the post office’s covert internet operations program.”
- “The Police Dog Who Cried Drugs at Every Traffic Stop. Cops laugh about ‘probable cause on four legs’ but the damage to innocent lives is real.”
- “Amazon’s Ring is the largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever seen. One in 10 US police departments can now access videos from millions of privately owned home security cameras without a warrant.”
- “Capitol Rioters’ ‘Trump Defense’ Comes Up Again And Again. Will It Make A Difference?”
- “CIA’s misleading inoculation drive led to vaccine decline in Pakistan.”
- “Seriously, just tax the rich. What the debate about paying for infrastructure misses.”—”Whether the government should tax rich people more to pay for spending priorities is a source of endless debate. Here’s another idea: Tax the rich because it’s the right thing to do.”
- “Idolators: Those Who Claim the Right to Oppress or Enslave Others”
- “Killing Cyclists Is As American As Mass Shootings. There are easy ways to prevent both, yet we carry on as if nothing is wrong.”
- “Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently. The mainstream narrative is that a pop star ripped up a photo of the pope on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and derailed her life. What if the opposite were true?”
- “‘How a $10k poker win changed how I think’. When amateur player Alex O’Brien unexpectedly won an online poker tournament, little did she know that she’d be pitted against one of the game’s most controversial players. A stellar team of poker pros offered to train her, and she discovered how poker can transform how you see the world.”
- “Stop Filming Us: Interrogating and Inverting the Western Gaze.” Also “Stop Filming Us. Now Playing in Theater and Virtual Cinema. In-theater Run Must End Thursday, May 20.” Also “Stop Filming Us.” Watch “Stop Filming Us” trailer.
- “Do We Really Need More Controversial Ideas? A new journal encourages scholars to share their most dangerous and tasteless thoughts.”
- “Another media acquisition? This one would involve Amazon, MGM, and ~$9B Does this at least mean we can watch No Time to Die at home soon?”
- “Sp!ng is a ‘stress ball for your brain’. I need more Sp!ng in my life.”
- “Imagining the next future. Polygon’s Sci-fi Week celebrates our never-ending curiosity about what’s next.”
- “Eastern Market Murder.”—”Investigate a spine-tingling crime from 1899. Delve into a mystical world of fortune tellers and phrenologists in this twisted tale of murder and madness. Blood red radishes, a business jealousy, whispers of false friends. When everything is not as it seems, will you foresee how it ends? With options to play at home, or at the actual location where the crime happened, you’ll explore crime scenes, question witnesses and examine evidence to outsmart the killer and reclaim justice for the victim’s family. Sound intriguing? Download now on the App Store and Google Play.” Watch “Eastern Market Murder” trailer.
- “How An Infinite Hotel Ran Out Of Room.”—”If there’s a hotel with infinite rooms, could it ever be completely full? Could you run out of space to put everyone? The surprising answer is yes — this is important to know if you’re the manager of the Hilbert Hotel.” A fun primer on the orders of infinity, even references Gamow’s One, two, three … infinity.