Something for the weekend #203

Welcome to my round-up of recent causes for some optimism, as found in the media and among the think-tanks and sometimes on podcasts. I also add occasional links to debunking of alarmism, to more general opinion articles on the curious gaps between optimists and pessimists, and occasionally to genuine causes for pessimism.

* A fresh tally of asteroids by NASA’s JPL lab brings good news for the Earth. The possibility of a major impact by any known space objects is now deemed to be just 1:30,000, including the mile-wide rubble-asteroid named 1950 DA. Which once had a somewhat scary chance of hitting the Earth in the year 2880. The more imminent asteroid 2009 JF1 has also just been removed from the ‘major risks’ list.

* There’s a been a big leap forward in gigabit Internet coverage in the UK. Homes here now have gigabit broadband in 66% of them, compared to just 37% last year.

* Interesting Engineering on how “a breakthrough in fibre-optics turned an undersea cable into 12 seismographs”. A 3,600-mile-long cable from Canada to the UK can now detect earthquakes as far away as the jungles of Peru in South America. Now that such dual-uses are proven, the researchers suggest that… “a large network of hundreds or thousands of permanent and real-time seafloor sensors could be implemented without modification of the existing sub-sea infrastructure”. Might also be useful for detecting submarines, approaching with ill-intent and cable-cutters, I’d suggest.

* Across Europe last year, 239 dams were removed from rivers with the aim of improving the local ecology. Admittedly, not all of the dams were big ones, and Europe is also a big place. Freshwater fish will likely only start to be happy when the removal figures are above 100,000. But it’s a start.

* A “new breakthrough in cooling computers offers up to 740% more power”. A copper wrapping… “integrates the device and its heat spreader into one piece, eliminating the need for additional heat sinks … this translates to much higher power … We were able to demonstrate a 740% increase in the power per unit volume”. So chips will run faster, live longer, and more of them will be able to be in the same PC case without needing expensive cooling units. Which may be one way around Moore’s Law, I guess.

* Reason reports that the UK finally seems ready to take the next steps toward accepting gene-edited plants and plant products. There are no plans to add special labels to food produced from such sources.

* The UK government is legislating to protect cash by enforcing the “continued availability of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities” in local communities.

* In a skills boost for UK communities, local colleges to partner with the Open University. The Open University being the UK’s long-standing and very experienced distance-learning provider. “Colleges” in the UK context means 16-18 colleges that also provide local adult education, rather than universities.

* Nature reports that “Researchers Sequence Genome of the Oat”. Researchers at Lund University told the press… “We have created the potential for targeted breeding, since we are now able to tell which oat varieties are compatible with one another.”

* In The Wall Street Journal ($ paywall) “After Three Stormy Decades, Some Reasons to Still Find Optimism”… “The genius of American democracy is that it is not static. It adjusts and adapts over time to changing circumstances. Is renewed.” Practical measures are offered to help this along, as the U.S. heads toward the next Presidential election. Firstly involving basic things like voting reform to boost trust in elections, alongside bolder politicians and more involved voters. Bloomberg chips in some more cheeriness, with “A Recession Won’t Be as Scary as It Sounds”.

* Bjorn Lomborg, in The Spectator, tells the UK “What the new GCSE in global warming should teach”. He, or the sub-editor is being ironic here. By assuming that the UK’s new schools exam in Natural History will be immediately hijacked by doom-mongers.

* The conservative One America News Network launches its own freedom-of-speech oriented social-media platform.

* The latest Reason magazine on the artist… “creating heroic portraits of machines and defending individualism and creative expression in Silicon Valley”. There’s a podcast interview.

* An opinion article in a little newspaper in Iowa (blocked from all but the US) this week notes… “An article in Psychology Today suggests that most people don’t start as pessimists; instead, they become pessimists”. For some people, it’s claimed that setbacks and/or lack of ability lead them to… “set low expectations for their performance to protect against disappointment. The pessimism [then] takes a toll on one’s mental and physical health” as it becomes ingrained. The increasingly cynical pessimist then decides that positive news is not even worth noticing, let alone evaluating. Lack of sleep is shown to aid this, by blocking receptivity to positive words.

* Conservative Woman suggests this week that “Optimism is the only sane response to Davos”. The hubris involved in the woke globalist’s … “implicit assumption that everything in nature can be known, ordered and controlled via technology [and that there is a socialism-like] general theory that they claim applies to everyone and everything everywhere” is doomed to fail in the face of humanity’s intellectual and cultural diversity. The optimistic conservative response, it is suggested, is to promote grassroots and localist… “ground-up, emergent, decentralised adaptations to the challenges of our times”.

* A genuine cause for pessimism is that the ‘job hiring’ algorithms and AIs used by HR staff are (you guessed it) based on pseudo-science. As shown by a paper in the Cell journal Patterns, “A Silicon Valley love triangle: hiring algorithms, pseudo-science, and the quest for auditability”.

* And here’s another genuine cause for pessimism that relates partly to algorithms, as well as to campus politics. There are new figures on the ridiculously high numbers of first-class degrees still being given out like candy-bars in the UK. Why? The Office for Students (OfS) last week published new research showing that… “more than half of first-class degrees awarded in 2021 could not be explained”.

* On the other hand, AIs and algorithms may have their uses. Not least in things like robo-surgery and transport. This week… “Autonomous cargo ship completes 500 mile voyage, avoiding hundreds of collisions”. And the UK government rolls out a £40 million government-funded competition for self-driving buses, shuttles and delivery vans.

* A Manchester University spin-out promises UK self-sufficiency in lithium, an important material for batteries… “countries with access to lithium-rich brines and recycled batteries, like the UK, [could] become self-sufficient in this strategically vital raw material.” “Brines” here meaning salty water, which the British Isles has rather a lot of around the edges.

* Another large chunk of the UK’s free-access Coastal Path around the entire coastline takes a step forward, with the Shoreham-by-Sea to Eastbourne being officially opened.

* The UK’s grand Chelsea Flower Show returned, this being the nation’s main expo for designer show-gardens.

* And lastly, in remote Cornwall here in the UK, a new “Stone circle discovered in prehistoric henge”. Meanwhile, over at the well-known Stonehenge, almost daily new discoveries.

Enjoyed this post? There’s more over at the ‘Something for the Weekend’ newsletter archive.

Tomorrowland storyboards

A new storyboard video-sequence for the deleted boat-ride scene in the movie Tomorrowland, and a new long podcast interview with Marc Vena who was the storyboarder on this optimistic 2015 movie.

Something for the weekend #202

Welcome to my weekly round-up of recent causes for optimism, as found in the media and among the think-tanks and sometimes on podcasts. I also offer occasional links to debunking of alarmism, and to general opinion articles on the tensions between optimists and pessimists.

* Google Translate has added 24 new languages, including… “Lingala, used by over 45 million people across Central Africa”. Google is also expanding its fuel-saving vehicle routing suggestions for Google Maps users.

* Bjorn Lomborg picks apart “The Fuzzy Math Behind U.N. Report on Global Disasters”.

* Lake District paramedic flies up a mountain with a jet-pack…. “The trial took place in weather where helicopters would have been grounded. The suit’s manufacturers, Gravity Industries, believes it can also cut emergency response times.”

* “Can California Change? An Interview with Michael Shellenberger”. Shellenberger, author of recent book on optimism that also pushed strongly for nuclear power, is to run for state governor as an independent.

* The U.S government’s sinister and probably unconstitutional new ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ has been put on hold after a civil liberties outcry. The Board’s very questionable head has also resigned.

* Jewish News reports that “Saudi Arabia hosting Jews at inter-faith summit is a breakthrough”.

* Australia and New Zealand have approved genetically-modified wheat for human consumption.

* Venturebeat on how “AI delivers real-time data for smarter farming”.

* The Register reports a successful slime-powered computing chip. “Arm CPU ran on electricity generated by algae for six months”.

* Sci-news reports that “Plants Can Germinate and Grow in Lunar Soil”. Just cress, at present. There’s a chance that the same will be true of Mars soil too, though the proof will have to wait until NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission being planned now for 2033.

* “A new CRISPR breakthrough could unlock gene-editing in 90% of insects”. Japan’s Kyoto University has successfully… “edited the genes of cockroaches using CRISPR”. The process should work on other insects… “leading to potential applications in pest control, evolutionary biology, and other fields.” Hopefully no-one will make insects grow bigger, in pursuit of new food creatures. Locusts the size of your forearm would not be good to risk having around, no matter how tasty they might be in a curry.

* The UK has emerging plans for a ‘seismic shift’ in fighting dementia. There’s said to be a coming ‘Ten Year Plan’ for the nation’s elderly.

* UK unemployment has dropped to a 50-year low of 3.7%, the lowest since 1974. Employee Benefits also notes that the UK’s… “employees saw a 7% average total pay growth, including bonuses from January to March 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)”. In ‘real terms’ that have been adjusted for inflation, there was a 1.4% growth in total pay”.

* In the UK, a ‘wonder weevil’ has been released into the wild. The hope is that it will eat the invasive ‘floating pennywort’, an alien plant which forms… “dense rafts over our rivers that harm native plants, fish and insects”.

* And finally, in the leafy English Midlands county of Hereford, 900 new glass-plate negatives… “of 1900s Herefordshire life, discovered hidden in cupboard”.

Enjoyed this post? There’s more over at the ‘Something for the Weekend’ newsletter archive.

Something for the weekend #201

Welcome to my round-up of recent causes for some optimism, as found in the media and among the think-tanks and sometimes on podcasts. Also more general opinion articles on the curious tensions between optimists and pessimists.

* The latest National Review chides “America’s Unwarranted Pessimism”…. “There’s no need for doomsaying. Unlike China and other autocratic states, the U.S. has the means to overcome its problems. … ‘what works’ is the boring old stuff we have here: freedom, democracy, property rights, rule of law, modest regulation and light taxation, free trade, a culture of entrepreneurship, hard work.”

* In the New Criterion, “reasons to be pessimistic and optimistic about the future of Western civilization”. Despite being abandoned and derided by leftist academics… “Far from receding, the civilization of the West has evolved into a worldwide enterprise [and if] defined in terms of stable governments and the rule of law, trusted currencies, leading universities and research institutions, productive business corporations, and widely admired ideals, then Western civilization appears to be as strong or even stronger now than it was a century or seventy-five years ago”. The rest of the article is mostly pessimism, and full of what Matt Ridley calls “turning point-itis”.

* The Washington Examiner surveys the sorry state of the social ‘sciences’. Mostly capital-P Psychology, it has to be said. This is a cause for cheer became many of psychology’s gloomy and depressing 20th century findings have now been proven to be “pseudo-scientific quackery”, as the article explains. Such as… “the collapse of ‘implicit bias’ theory, which holds that closet racists will struggle to pair black and brown faces with words such as ‘good’ in laboratory experiments.” Nor are the revelations over, it appears, as the article notes an ongoing… “steady stream of further bad news … and the horrifying discoveries made in recent months”. Which is good news for those who have had to live with such “pseudo-scientific quackery” at the back of their minds for most of their lives.

* Meanwhile, the latest issue of the USA’s Psychology Today magazine apparently has its psychologists pushing something called “tragic optimism”. This paywall article is picked up and summarised by the UK’s latest issue of Stylist… “In today’s world, toxic positivity tends to reign supreme. … but what if we all started focusing on the lows in our lives just as much as we focus on the highs … we may find a deeper sense of meaning … Try meditation”. Yuk.

* There are claims of a new indoors mushroom-farming method… “that produces large and predictable morel mushrooms.” Morels mean little here in the UK to ordinary people, but in posh London restaurants and elsewhere in the world they’re apparently highly prized and costly. A quick look at the U.S. headlines even gives the impression that most of Michigan annually treks out into the wilderness to enjoy a vast communal ‘morel-hunt’. The new Morel Project indoor crop is said to have… “yielded more than nine pounds of mushrooms over a 22-week cycle, or about 20 pounds per square yard.”

* The UK is to outlaw ‘exclusive work’ contracts for some workers… “Lowest paid workers to be given flexibility to top up their pay”, by being able to also work for other employers.

* The Times of Israel on a “toxic cancer treatment made safe”. Israeli scientists… “have found a way to safely administer an immunotherapy drug thought capable of saving many lives, but before now considered too toxic for widespread use.”

* The Straits Times reports that “Drone swarms can now fly autonomously through thick forest”. Which sounds like it could be useful in terms of things like fire-spotting and search-and-rescue.

* And finally, NASA really has ‘set the controls for the heart of the sun’, as the famous rock-music song has it. As a result… we now have first full Sun photo in 50 years. The powerful Solar Orbiter cameras have snapped an 83-gigapixel whopper of a picture and… “revealed never-before-seen regions of the Sun, including the poles”. The new imaging and other measurements hope to answer a hot-topic question in science: “why does the temperature of the sun’s material seem to rise as it is thrown upwards from the surface?” Umm… friction would be my complete guess?

Enjoyed this post? There’s more over at the ‘Something for the Weekend’ newsletter archive.

Something for the weekend #200

Welcome to my round-up of what I see as recent causes for some optimism, as found in the media and sometimes among the think-tanks or on podcasts. I also add occasional links to debunking of alarmism, and to more general opinion articles which muse on the curious divisions between optimists and pessimists.

* EOS reports on the “Machine Learning That Helps See into a Volcano’s Depths”. A “This Volcano Is About to Erupt” AI might be quite handy, if such a thing can be made reliable. Though I guess there are not many testing opportunities that involve real eruptions.

* GMO “Vitamin A enhanced Golden Rice distributed for planting”, for the first time in the Philippines.

* A record 1,750 humpback whales have recently been observed off the coast of Japan. Elsewhere scientists have recorded over 600 humpback whale calls including some never heard before such as curious ‘gunfire’ sounds.

* In the UK, a “New trial to banish loud engines and exhausts on Britain’s noisiest streets”. The context here is that boy-racers will deliberately tune their cars to produce extremely loud revs and also sharp ‘backfires’ that sound like guns being fired.

* Also in the UK, a “New subsidy control system will support UK jobs, boost the economy”. This means that… “every [taxpayer] subsidy must deliver strong benefits for local communities” and will also be tested for value-for-money. Albeit by civil-servants, rather than a board of savvy and disinterested local businesses.

* Also in the UK, niche hyperlocal news providers are mooting a £100m national fund to support independent hyperlocal reporting. Sounds like a good idea, though of course the local corporate journalists are being sniffy about possible competitors.

* The Amazon Kindle will support EPUB in late 2022. Although this is not quite the good news that it seems, as… “Amazon is converting the uploaded .EPUB to .KF8 (.AZW3)” [i.e. the early version of the Kindle’s .MOBI]. So it’s not much use then, and nothing you can’t do manually in Calibre or ePubor.

* Computerworld magazine has a useful brief survey of “the new workplace” in terms of the tools that the pandemic created. These are another ‘silver lining’ from the pandemic, if such things can be kept flexible and testable. And ideally don’t become just a new unthinking ‘office orthodoxy’, with a lot of misguided hippy-dippy beliefs stringing along behind (i.e. “plants clean the air” etc).

* Spiked! magazine notes that… “A recent survey found that the number of Americans moving from their home regions is at its highest level on record”, and that people are flocking to conservative states and cities (Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Houston and Dallas are cited) while the crazily ‘woke’ coastal cities are barely growing. Such that the… “chances of Democrats winning over the growing regions [of the U.S.] now seem slim. … Once the ultimate swing state, Florida, at least for now, has turned solidly red. Texas seems content to stay on a conservative path while Democrats in Arizona, Florida and other Sun Belt states could be facing extinction”.

* An article in The Critic notes that across the U.S…. “there is currently ongoing legislation in 39 states that opposes historical revisionism and activist scholarship and pedagogy, all powered by parental movements. Conservatives, after three decades of [free] market dogma, have resorted to a tried and tested method, returning local power to the parents.” And that’s then an entry-point for activist parents into a wider platform: school choice; promote real excellence and talent; defend American values; empower parents further; and question grade and accreditation inflation (i.e. you need a degree and many other certificates just to dig a ditch).

* Conservatives are writing books for kids. “Conservative Children’s Book Tops Amazon Charts” has some recent details, and there’s also an earlier article on two books by Matthew Mehan of Hillsdale College.

* GBNews on the doom inherent in doom-addiction… “if young people … spend their lives terrified about the future, then we’re all doomed.”

* You may have vaguely heard that the world’s supply of laughing-gas is gasping its last? Nope. There are ongoing supply hiccups, but trade journal Gasworld reports this week that the second half of 2022 looks a bit better for the helium sucking crowd. As supplies ramp up to meet demand… “we could very well look back on Q1/Q2 as the peak of Helium Shortage #4”.

* “AI helps scientists design novel plastic-eating enzyme” which it is said… “can break down plastic in as little as 24 hours at temperatures between 30 and 50 degrees celsius. The [University of Texas] team believes production and usage of the AI-designed enzyme can be scaled up to industrial levels”.

* “Breakthrough success of study using virtual reality to treat mental health problems”, being trialled in Manchester, UK. This involves… “psychological therapy being automated in virtual reality. With the user guided by a virtual coach, there is no need for a real-life therapist, meaning the treatment can reach many more patients.”

* Wales Online reports a “Chronic back pain breakthrough: Toxin discovered in venomous sea anemones ‘could end’ misery for millions”. Sounds good, but simply lowering the very high price of long-lasting 12-hour ‘overnight’ Iboprofen might also be a very good move. And allowing people to buy three packs at the store, rather than the two they’re limited to here in the UK.

* Israel is building a wall of lasers capable of shooting down… “drones, mortars, rockets and anti-tank missiles”. It’s part of the nation’s growing defence-in-depth capability against the airborne terrorist attacks constantly being launched against its civilians. But the new capability is not quite there yet as… “the entire system, including the ground system, would be ready in ‘about a year’.”

* In the U.S., local newspapers report… “Eagle population soars across Ohio”. A state which, as some will know, is not usually known for its mountains and inaccessible eyries.

* And finally, as the grass sprouts in the May rains, tech giant NVIDIA reports that “Scythe Rolls Out Autonomous Lawnmower With Cutting Edge Tech”… “Scythe is among an emerging class of startups offering robots as a service, or RaaS, in which customers pay according to usage.” Hopefully it will be intelligent enough to avoid things like hedgehogs.

Enjoyed this post? There’s more over at the ‘Something for the Weekend’ newsletter archive.