Collected Links (06/03/2022)

• "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Korean Edition)" -- from John
• Chief Justice Roberts supposedly wrote both the opinion of the Court and dissent in ACA case ultimately upholding "Obamacare." He initially favored the challengers, wrote that as the main opinion, then changed his view, and wrote what then became the main opinion, and his original draft was largely kept by the dissenters. [Note the opinion was split on the several issues it considered; some Justices joined with Roberts on some issues and some on others. Opinion: National Federation of Ind. Business v. Sebelius; See also (Forbes -- different article with essentially same story).]
• Kurt Gödel supposedly discovered a "loophole" in the Constitution while he was studying to be a United States citizen -- the loophole would have allowed the country to become a dictatorship. He told this to the citizenship examiner, who decided to move past it (not that his view would have prevented him from becoming a citizen . . .). Albert Einstein and economist Oskar Morgenstern were apparently present at the citizenship ceremony/examination. Gödel apparently never told anyone what the "loophole" was. [N.B. I can think of perhaps a half dozen ways within the Constitution -- as I think many can -- in which the U.S. could become a dictatorship -- but I also know none of these potential paths are realistic.]
• While many people (including many film critics -- who are, it turns out, a type of people), have tried to excuse the extraordinarily racist and pro-KKK film Birth of a Nation as just how people (meaning white people, I guess) thought at the time, i.e. as a product of its age, Eugene Debs and others called it out for the racist and hateful crap it is. [N.B. Debs was from Terre Haute, Indiana, where I lived from ages c. 11-18; Debs views were not emblematic of the community I knew, but, to the contrary Terre Haute stands out as about the most politically/culturally anti-Debs place I've ever known.]
• Pachelbel's Canon in D, performed on original instruments -- by Voices of Music -- and a equally beautiful version by the Nippon Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ringism [from The Codex]

[Introduction to The Codex]

It is said that when Pyth's Old Quarter was first built its buildings were constructed upon the archaic remains of older structures. This rumor cannot be confirmed, of course, as long ago the foundations of the Old Quarter's buildings were sealed against flooding, given the Quarter's proximity to the sea. Some claim, though, that they were actually sealed to prevent hoary spirits and miasmas rising from the deep. They say that below the archaic structures are even older ones, and, below that, even older, and that people have travelled there. Going down, moving through shafts and breaks, tunnels and drops, level after level, older and older the building gets. The farther one travels in the dark deep the farther one travels into the past. Magic and meta-magic fade underground, of course, eventually ceasing to work at all. Yet, far down, it is said, ancient magics arise. The deeper one goes, the stronger these grow. Deepest down lie mystical wonders and things of enormous power. Here there are still creatures living, it is claimed, some who make their own light, and some who live and hunt in the darkness.

Ringism is supposedly based on the beliefs of the survivors of this journey, but "supposedly" only, for there are no known survivors. Still the rumors persist in Pyth, and they have developed a devout following, dedicated to what they believe are the rumors' truths. These, they say, show a true religion, a religion of a Ring God, and supposedly show how to connect with the god and how the god, when understood, empowers followers. But what truths they have, if any, are fragmentary: bits and pieces of lore, conjecture, and fantasy. 

Collected Links (06/02/2022)

• "Plastic Recycling Doesn't Work and Will Never Work" -- at The Atlantic
• Joy of Computing -- via Metafiler, which, to quote: "'Joy of Computing is here to remind you that computers can be both useful and fun': one new link to a technical project posted each day -- blog posts, toys, tools, games, and more."
• Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Miserables as sung by Cormac Thompson. SLYT. A charity version relating the song to losses from COVID.
• Shower thoughts on self-driving cars, at Reddit -- "When Self-driving cars become mainstream, occasionally dead old people will just arrive places." And so much more (hmmm, self-driving car bombs ...).
• !!! (Chk Chk Chk) -- Man on the Moon -- This. Rocks.

Collected Links (06/01/2022)

• Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf) -- Wikipedia -- well written and thorough.
• "Gravity is Not a Force" -- Veritassium -- really great but does not define what is meant by a "force" -- i.e. the title is misleading because he means "gravity is an effect of space-time, which effect some people might call a "force" but it is not a "force" acting independently from that effect (and let's not get too deeply into gravitons or the Standard Model or gravitational waves)." In the Standard Model bosons are particles that form fields, but bosons are also the consequence of fields. Einstein famously did not believe in "spooky action at a distance," and the idea of a space-time field with a mediating particle (gravitons) is consistent with General Relativity. So, saying "gravity is not a force" is a little misleading since it ignores what might be meant, when closely examined, by "force."
• Newton's method of calculating pi -- Veritassium -- superlative video --  includes getting from πr to πr² -- also includes great stuff on Pascal's triangle in negative numbers and fractions and continuums -- shows (without overtly saying so) why Newton was a brilliant mathematician -- Newton's method developed from integration and series and development of (1+x)².
• Newton's Pendulum (Gangnam Style)
• Göbekli Tepe -- at Reddit -- at Wikipedia -- quote from Reddit: "built around 9500BC while Britain was still connected to Europe and humans hunted mammoths in Siberia. We are closer in time to the construction of Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids, than [Stonehenge and the ancient Egyptians] were to [Göbekli Tepe]."
• Fox News: "Biden keeps repeating false Second Amendment claim, despite repeated fact checks" --  -- the quoted language that is asserted to be false is "You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed." Fox News, of course, provides no evidence that ordinary people could just go out and buy cannons. Fox News, of course, provides no evidence that, in the words of the Second Amendment, that ordinary people would "keep and bear" cannons. It seems absurd to believe (without evidence, natch) that some people kept cannons, say, at their households or even on their person. Cannons at the time were very difficult to make. The only evidence is that cannons were bought and sold for military or quasi-military use. (N.B. "quasi-military" because the U.S. military as a body was loosely organized and depended on state militias and not in any substantial way on a federal military body in the years after the American Revolution. See, e.g.) Fox News, citing Politico. claims all weapons were unregulated because it asserts there were no formal federal gun laws until 1934. That's nuts. There were numerous state gun restrictions before that time. Moreover, restrictions on ownership (and practical inability and common understandings of prohibitions) were a product of the common law not written laws or regulations, as law at that time was driven by common law not statutory law. Fox News's and Politico's suggestions to the contrary  are, frankly, wrong and indicated of legal and historical ignorance. Indeed, the Constitution's explicit provision for issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal shows the understanding that the use of weapons such as cannons had to be authorized -- it was not some sort of freely floating around right. Fox News also states as a fact "The Second Amendment as it is written does not limit who can 'keep and bear arms' or what kind of arms people can keep and bear." Actually, the Second Amendment does not say any types of weapon or any amount of weapons can be owned. The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly made this clear (see specifically Section III of the Court's opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, which is the watershed "pro-gun rights" decision from the Supreme Court and still makes this clear). Indeed, the clerks for Justices Scalia and Stevens recently made this clear -- Scalia and Stevens wrote, respectively, the Court's opinion and main dissent in Heller -- in a lengthy and detailed op-ed.  The assertion that Biden's statement is false, extends back to Politifact, which called it "dubious," not false, i.e. not a lie. It was "dubious" because Biden did not, gratuitously, point to a specific case where someone was prohibited from owning a cannon. But that is incorrect: it puts the "proof" requirement on the wrong person: if you say private individuals could go around owning cannons, in the sense we mean, not for military purposes as they existed then, then I think the onus is on you to prove it. As discussed above, I think that notion -- that private laypeople owned cannons -- edges on the absurd for several reasons. Having that view, as Biden evidently does, is  not a lie. Fox News's story is intended to cement in the reader the belief that Biden is dishonest. Biden, like all of us, makes plenty of mistakes. He certainly says many things poorly. He has, without question, told lies during his life and long political career. This the statement here, right or wrong (and it may be right) isn't a lie.. Fox News knows that and goes ahead, anyway. Again, this story was pushed to me today by Fox News. It's not like Fox News is also pushing stories that are truthful. 
• Fox News, again! Michael Sussman, a lawyer connected with Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential campaign, was found not guilty of lying to the FBI. The supposed "lie" was hawked by Fox News as a major scandal involving Clinton and the Democrats. Fox News repeatedly suggested the supposed "lies" were actual criminal conduct and involved "massive fraud" and was, in fact, "the biggest political scandal in modern history." Sussman was prosecuted by a special prosecutor selected by Trump; the supposed "lie" involved Trump's alleged wrongful conduct in relation to Russia. So, there was a patent conflict of interest from the get-go as Trump appointed a prosecutor to investigate and prosecute a political opponent's campaign over statement's about Trump. According to Mother Jones (on a story pushed to me, BTW), the special prosecutor's investigation has actually strengthened the case against Trump. Anyway, the jury was not out long before ruling for Sussman and rejecting the Trump special prosecutor's prosecution. Fox News's response? The result was due to "jury nullification." "D.C. juries are famous for failing to follow the facts and the law." The jury was "biased" and composed of "Hilary Clinton peers." And more and more. Fox News is not just mendacious but prolific.

Llamdianism [from The Codex]

[Introduction to The Codex]

The Llamda, we understand, believe that a God, or the Gods, or, collectively, a "Godhead," created the Universe, but that life on our planet, Arret, at least sentient life, as it is, was inadvertent, a, shall we say, divine accident. The Llamda believe this, because, they think living things on Arret have so many flaws, and shortcomings, and life and death are so arbitrary, that they could not have been intended, or purposefully created ... ! So, too, they believe that the thought processes of sentient beings on Arret contain so many inconsistencies, uncertainties, and lapses, that people’s “thinking,” as such, is plainly imperfect, and not possibly an intentionally created thing. A Godhead with the power to create an entire Universe would not purposefully have made such badly designed beings or processes. So, life, at least sentient life on Arret, in their view, was an accidental outcome of the Godhead’s enormous endeavor of Universal creation.

Collected Links (05/31/2022)

• NYT Wirecutter "52 Things We Love" HP Officejet Pro 9015e printer, ChefsChoice Trizor XV knife sharpener, Milwaukee Fastback utility knife, Nektech 60W USB-C GaN charger, Nidra Deep Rest eyemask, Novaform Comfortgrand mattress, Channellock wirecutters, Cuisinart Chef's Convection toaster oven.
• Fox News: "Biden's refusal to send rockets to Ukraine shows 'complete lack of strategy' from White House: Victoria Coates" -- classic Fox News: irresponsible title of an irresponsible article -- irresponsibility here that extends to outright dishonesty. First, the U.S. is sending rockets to Ukraine -- indeed, the U.S. under the Biden administration is by far the leading supplier of arms to Ukraine. The announcement the Fax News story related to involves an announcement of an additional $700 million military aid to Ukraine, including advanced medium range rockets. So, the headline and article are dishonest. Second, in fact the U.S. is not sending one type of advanced long range rocket that would potentially expand the conflict by allowing Ukraine to begin an offensive against Russia as the missiles can be targeted missiles at sites in the Russian interior. Strategically, we cannot allow that, nor can we contravene our NATO allies on this, and they surely would not allow this. So, there's significant strategic concerns here, not a "complete absence of it. Third, the "complete lack of strategy" quote -- itself hyperbole even if there was some strategic disagreement (which there isn't) -- was not actually made on the missile decision per see but to the announcement of it. Coates says that our saying what we're going to do is a "complete lack of strategy." So, Fox News overtly distorted it for a headline and article. Fourth, using representing a cherry picked quote from "talking head" is not news although it is represented on the broadcast as news. Note, in this regard, Fox News has separate news and commentary divisions. This is from the news side. Fifth, the line between news and commentary at Fox, as demonstrated in part by this article, is becoming non-existent. Fox, apparently, is abandoning attempts to even superficially present news straight. This is why the most ethical of their anchors (in my view) -- Shep, Chris -- have quit. And Sixth this is not just casual dishonesty: this story was "pushed" to me by Fox News. UPDATE: It turns out the U.S. is in fact sending the very weapons in question. Not seeing a correction from Fox. Instead I see "Russia Stages Nuclear Drills After U.S. Announces Rockets to Ukraine" -- which flatly contradicts in its own deceptive way the thesis of Fox News's first salacious and untrue article, discussed above -- and "Biden's Latest $700M Ukraine Weapons Package: Here's Everything in It".
• Knee Drives for Exercise -- to stretch and exercise my weak points (well some of the many)
  
• Bionic Reading Font -- I, personlly, find this much easier to read quickly and with comprehension -- I think this is a great idea.
• "Trump’s Fiscal Legacy: A Comprehensive Overview of Spending, Taxes, and Deficits" -- bottom line: during the Trump presidency we added $3.9 trillion to the U.S. deficit.
• At Quartz: "A Harvard Economist Summarizes His Class on Monopolies in 54 Tweets"

Collected Links (05-30-2022)

• Why much published research is wrong (problems with p-values, etc.)
• Calculating p-values: Wikipedia; Wolfram (discussion); Kahn Academy (slyt)
• Ceramics by Ariana Heinzman (on Colossal) -- hand made vessels, bright abstracted floral motif (mostly) surface decoration
• Wisteria in Japan (on Colossal)
  
• "Japanese Suburbs in Watercolor" (on Nag on the Lake) -- lovely
  
• Flora Yukhonovich -- abstracted Rococo paintings
  
• "Latecomers [Edited] Guide to Crypto" (via Tim) Annotated "grossly irresponsible" NYT tech article -- although some of the annotations are trenchant, a fair number are just sniping. "Crypto," of course, is not tangible property -- its proponents would have us believe it's a currency. It's subject to the same quasi-ponzi scheme and speculation driven concerns as any intangible asset; concerns that currencies are not pegged to any tangible standard, such as gold, have been the source of hand wringing for at least 150 years. That's repeated again in the annotations. Yet except in El Salvador (currently) crypto's not an official currency anywhere, it's not a necessary means of exchange, and it's highly speculative as an investment. It may have benefit for this who want to wash or shelter assets (despite the articles suggestions otherwise). But I'm not an investor. 
  
• Maps for proposed walks around London (on a blog called A Lady in London) (via Nag on the Lake)
  

Astellism (and the Alpha Astari) [from The Codex]

[Introduction to The Codex]

The World is but so large, yet the Astelli imagine infinities.

To the Astelli our world is but one of an endless number, one for each star in the sky. Each person follows a path among worlds. After death each of us is reborn into a new world. We begin again as infants.

The path we trace is our family path. It is the path of our ancestors and our descendants. Not all lives are equally long. On rebirth, then, we may rejoin some of our ancestors and descendants as well as close family members. Here we have a chance to talk, to love, to look after each other again. Or to revisit old hates and resentments.

We do this although we are not conscious of our prior lives. We know their feeling although we do not know why. Their knowledge lies deep in our subconscious.

Images from the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. in 1964

In Focus, the photography blog at The Atlantic, is running a five part series of images from 1964 -- 50 years prior to the date of the posts.  The second set is a particularly moving series of images from the U.S. civil rights movement -- I hadn't seen most of them before.  Here are two from June 1964 in St. Augustine, Florida, a city that saw a lot of protests -- and violence -- arising from its laws mandating racial segregation
.

Caption from In Focus: "Ivory Ward, 43, sits in his car, with a hole in his windshield that he said was made by a bullet fired from a truck driven by white men, after African Americans marched in an integration demonstration, June 10, 1964, in St. Augustine, Florida. (AP Photo/JK)"

Caption from In Focus: "A state police officer with club in hand overtakes a white segregationist, as African Americans attempted to swim and were attacked by a large group of whites at St. Augustine Beach, Florida, on June 25, 1964. The state police arrested a number of whites and African Americans. (AP Photo)"

"The Fool's Tale": Dramatis Personae

Today we take a short pause from our blogging to present the characters to an semi-autobiographical sequel to the Canterbury Tales, The Fool's Tale. Based on the people with whom I work, this will only be up for a short period before it's taken down.  

To be sure there's some exaggeration here and there -- some dramatic license is necessary, it's a story -- but I have no doubt all of the characters could easily identify themselves and everyone else.  The humor is in "you've got to know these people -- that's so true" type of nonsense, but since you'll never meet most of them, well, you'll just have to make do. Yet The Fool's Tale itself will never be written -- I have no plot -- and if it were written, then the story would need a self-reflective subtitle: How the Fool Lost His Job.

Our characters:

Yum, Delicious Seawater

Seawater (possibly from Moorea, French Polynesia?) magnified 25x, taken by David Liittschwager.  Link via Colossal. LARGE IMAGE HERE.

Slow Life from Daniel Stoupin on Vimeo

Via Kottke, on Vimeo. As Daniel Stoupin, the creator, states at his blog and his Vimeo description accompanying his video, he required 150,000 "shots" to make this 3 minute and 38 second video, and most of it involves image stacking to give a greater depth of field.  He suggests it be watched in full HD (it has 4K resolution) on a large screen with actual image size selected.  He also asks that it not be used for sales purposes, particularly for the marine aquarium industry (not that he has any antipathy with that industry, he just doesn't want it used for its sales).  The underlying thrust of the video is that much marine life (heck, much life in general) moves at scales humans are not accustomed to appreciate yet it is extremely important to our well being.

Take Two on Pharrell Williams's "Get Happy" (Pomplamoose)

Pharrell Williams's original music video here.  

And a Despicable Me version with lyrics here.

Daft Punk's "get Lucky" here.

Take One on Pharrell Williams's "Get Happy" (Christopher Bill)

"Lap Dance"

Via Colossal via the Awesomer.

Ricky Gervais Tweets About Religion

From a post at the Ink Tank, The 10 Smartest Ricky Gervais Tweets About Religion:

God doesn't prevent terrible things because:
A) He can't
B) He doesn't want to
C) He causes them
D) He doesn't exist 

Please vote now

Note: it's not clear to me whether this originated with Ricky Gervais or Nicol de Villiers (@Durbanville) on Twitter -- although it is credited by sites like Ink Tank to Gervais, I only find a Twitter link to de Villiers, and the de Viller's tweet looks to be two+ hours earlier so either Gervais or an assistant may have copied it (if he indeed tweeted it).  Regardless, it's apt. 

Yeah, I'm doing this wrong.  I should be re-tweeting Ricky Gervais (or the somewhat less prolific Nicol de Villiers).  But this is a blog.

Today's Extra Bonus Olympic Coverage: Ice Skating

Today's Olympic Coverage: Yes! More Curling!

I Profusely Apologize to Our Russian Comrades About My Impolitic and Plainly Erroneous Comments About Their News Coverage Early This Evening and as aToken of Goodwill Now Post This Important Russian News Story About the Olympics

Russia Applauds America's Efforts To Exclude Gay Athletes From Professional Sports

Actual Russian coverage of the Olympics can be found at the Moscow Times and Pravda.  Be warned: Pravda is sort of the Russian equivalent of Fox Nation and apparently has a news feed from an alternate universe.

Today's Olympic Coverage: I am Pretty Sure This is About the Olympics

As reported in The Onion, which is, apparently, the only news source that's been able to leak information not sanitized by the Russian censors out of Sochi Russia:

Delighted Health Insurance Executives Gather In Outdoor Coliseum To Watch Patient Battle Cancer

           *  *  *
Sources confirmed that the stone arena was filled to capacity for the highly anticipated spectacle, with over 90,000 officials attending from providers as far away as WellPoint, Kaiser Permanente, and HCSC to see if the patient could survive an intense, brutal struggle with the advanced stage III illness.

“Today we bring you one of our most thrilling challengers to date: a 57-year-old caucasian male with preexisting high blood pressure and a family history of heart disease,” said Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Scott Serota from an extravagantly decorated box seat, his booming voice immediately silencing the raucous masses of middle-aged executives. “He holds a privately purchased Aetna PPO with a $400 monthly premium and $1,500 annual deductible, but faces the fight of his life against an aggressive form of multiple myeloma, one of the most ruthless killers known to man.”

“Bring out Aetna member #ABP80424!” Serota continued as the withered patient was wheeled into the sand-filled arena on a small gurney to loud boos and whistles. “Let the battle commence!” ...

Today's Olympic Coverage: Curling

Breaking from The Onion: "U.S. Advances To Women’s Hockey, Hey, Get The Fuck Back Here"

As quoted from America's Finest News Source, The Onion:

Not the picture that ran with the story. In fact, not even from the same Olympics

After surging ahead thanks to first-period goals from Amanda Kessel, Kacey Bellamy, and—what, did seeing the names Amanda and Kacey already make you want to navigate away from this page? Because sources saw your dismissive, misogynistic bullshit coming a mile away before posting this report about a women’s sporting event, even though it involves a team representing the United States of America at the goddamn Olympics.

The full report can be found her ... hey it's about women's sports, goddamnit.

Today's Olympic Coverage

Via Kottke.

The 2014 OLympics Opening Ceremonies

I so do love sports:

The Difference Between These People and Me ...

Is that they are actually doing something ...

Jimmy Fallon Does Impressions (I mean, c'mon, the guy's a genius)

The ... Um ... Safety Dance? (A Dance Movie Mash-up)

Via Purple Clover.

WARNING: Humans Are A Class 1 Biological Threat

Via Miss Cellania.

These are Beautiful

What beautiful execution of a fantastical, far-fetched idea.  Modern art is being (one might say "has been") co-opted by graphic design, which itself has been co-opted by advertising.

Via Boing Boing.

How does Santa get Down the Chimney? Science!

Christmas is attendant with many mysteries -- like what the hell does it actually have to do with Jesus Christ? (um, nothing) -- but one important question is why does Santa use the chimney and also how does he use it (well, that's two questions) and why is it important that he's so fat (okay, three questions), but they all have one answer: air pressure.

This does not answer the question of how Santa gets back up the chimney, which I believe is not "by lighting a fire under his butt (that would just flood the house with smoke ... and kill Santa) but by being tethered to magic flying reindeer.