Monthly Archives: May 2023

I must confess that I have not kept up with William Gibson, who, long ago, wrote Neuromancer, and later another novel – I forget its name – in which a rock star is engaged to marry an AI woman. Now I’ve run across this:

Smiling as the charm oozes out everywhere.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) is a whimsically told, even charming story of the concierge Gustav, his favorite bellhop, Zero, and their often bold attempts to preserve the eponymous hotel in the midst of a very uncharming time.

World War II.

Just as Gustav’s goal is to give every guest a special environment in which they can forget the tiresome realities of the mid-twentieth century, Gustav and Zero try to cushion their hotel, themselves, and each other, even as the dirty realities of German fascism invade the hotel.

And when it all comes crashing down, it’s a real downer.

Both memorable and fun, if a mixture of idyll and reality appeals, this may be for you.

Parhelic circle:

This is a white, horizontal circle at the same angular elevation as the Sun. Bright spots may be observed at certain points of the parhelic circle. These spots occur most commonly a little outside the 22° halo (parhelia, often brilliantly coloured). Occasionally, bright spots (paranthelia) are seen at an azimuthal distance of 120° from the Sun and, very rarely, opposite the Sun (anthelion). When the parhelia, paranthelia or the anthelion are particularly bright, they are often called mock suns. [Internaional Cloud Atlas of the World Meteorological Organization]

Noted on Spaceweather.com:

COMPLEX SUN HALO: You’re not supposed to look straight at the sun, but… “I’m so glad I did,” says R. J. Cobain of Conlig, Northern Ireland. “I was dumbfounded yesterday when I happened to look up at the sky.” The sun was surrounded by a lacy network of halos and arcs:

[picture omitted, go follow the link]

“It’s by far the best display of atmospheric optics I have ever seen,” he says. “I was shaking as I took as many photos as I could. There was a complete parhelic circle, a circumscribed halo, a supralateral arc, a 22-degree halo, a pair of sundogs, and possibly a Wegener arc.”

The orange azalea is sort of blooming. Stripping context gives this lovely pic.

And this is not bad.

However, my Arts Editor has raised objections to the heartless telephone pole that photobombed the unsuspecting azalea.

This is the British FV4005.

Never actually used in combat. The mini-documentary I watched didn’t address the question of surviving the firing of a round.

Quick: Who would you rather see as Speaker of the House, current Speaker Rep Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) or … Rep and member of the extremist Freedom Caucus Matt Gaetz (R-FL)?

Yeah, the latter is worse than the former, and, while Steve Benen doesn’t mention Gaetz by name, it’s implied in this reminder:

But let’s also not forget that McCarthy, while begging his own members for their support during his protracted fight for the speaker’s gavel, agreed to tweak the motion-to-vacate-the-chair rules, which at least in theory, would make it easier for angry House Republicans to try to oust McCarthy from his leadership position.

This isn’t a prediction, per se, and I’m not saying the House speaker will necessarily be ousted by a relatively moderate bipartisan deal, should one come together. But if the scope of the Freedom Caucus’ discontent reaches a fever pitch, a hypothetical deal clears thanks to significant Democratic support, don’t be surprised if we all start hearing the phrase “vacate the chair” a lot more frequently.

A slippery question indeed.

So, suppose such a motion occurs, and it’s known that a Freedom Caucus member will at least try to replace McCarthy should the motion be sustained. Then some unnamed Republican contacts the Democrats and states that, while the Republicans won’t vote for a Democrat, many will vote to return McCarthy to the Speaker’s chair – and asks the Democrats to support McCarthy.

What do the Democrats do?

“Lab-grown meat”, which is cultured from muscle cells, and thus considered, by some, to be morally acceptable for consumption, has one under-considered problem:

Meat produced from cultured cells could be 25 times worse for the climate than regular beef unless scientists find ways to overhaul energy-intensive steps in its production. …

[…] Derrick Risner at the University of California, Davis, and his colleagues found that the global warming potential of cultivated meat, defined as the carbon dioxide equivalents emitted for each kilogram of meat produced, is 4 to 25 times higher than for regular beef.

The researchers conducted a life-cycle assessment of cultivated meat that estimated the energy used in each step in current production methods. They predict that this will be similar regardless of which animal’s cells are being cultivated.

They found that the nutrient broth used to culture the animal cells has a large carbon footprint because it contains components like sugars, growth factors, salts, amino acids and vitamins that each come with energy costs. [“Lab-grown meat could be 25 times worse for the climate than beef,” Alice Klein, NewScientist (13 May 2023, paywall)]

Technology is often subject to initial condemnation because of a drawback later overcome by advances, so, if eating a steak from a petri dish is your dream, despair not yet. But, in today’s world, energy is the foundation of just about all that we do. Natural grown meat has some significant advantages, so far, over lab-grown, so if we want to continue to eat meat, like most omnivores, then we may have to discard what we could consider to be a proposed moral precept.

Earlier this month I suggested Governor DeSantis’ (R-FL) Presidential dreams, at least for 2024, were little more than ashes. Right on queue, I am given to understand, DeSantis’ announcement of his run for the GOP nomination took place yesterday, and was unimpressive.

The start of a much-anticipated Twitter event in which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis planned to announce his 2024 Republican presidential bid was repeatedly disrupted Wednesday when Twitter’s servers apparently could not handle the surge in traffic.

The app crashed repeatedly as Twitter users tried to listen to the event where Twitter owner Elon Musk joined DeSantis for the announcement.

DeSantis eventually was able to speak, about 20 minutes after the scheduled start, after Musk closed the initial Twitter Spaces event and started a second one on the app. That space attracted about 161,000 users, according to Twitter’s public-facing data, as DeSantis read a short speech. [NBC News]

All consonant with the general fourth-rate quality of GOP officials. Before my readers assail me about technical glitches, I’ll note that, quite often, bad attracts bad. For example, find one bug in some computer code, chances are above average that another lurks in that code path.

And that glitch, oddly enough, is an opportunity for DeSantis. The poor official entry into the race puts him on his back foot, yes, but it also lets him demonstrate resilience and flexibility. Shake out the screw ups, have a good yell at Musk, etc etc, and those independents who value some sign off competence – of which DeSantis has exhibited little – and he may attract the votes necessary from the independents.

In fact, he might find MAGA voters much more difficult to attract than independent voters, and that’s a completely separate problem.

I’ve still written DeSantis off, but he’s had opportunity handed to him. Can he do anything with it?

Dude, one little misplaced pat on the bottom will either have her right over the railing to the stone floor below – or you. Decide wisely.

Cry Wolf (1947) has a baffling title, perhaps a preparation for a plot that mystifies. After all, why does the unknown wife of the dead man show up claiming his estate, yet not weeping over his death? What is bothering the sister of the dead man so badly that she ends up face down on the plaza?

And where did they find this patriarch of the family that had my Arts Editor literally grinding her teeth?

It all revolves around a semi-ridiculous trust, large debts of the trustee, and a family wracked with a mysterious illness.

Interesting, but not fascinating, with good acting. Errol Flynn completists will need to see it, if only to verify he doesn’t bear a sword in every movie he made.

If you want a simple introduction to entropy, relativity and quantum mechanics, their unexplained facets, and how they feed into a theory of how Time is emerges from reality, The Physics of Time by Robert A. Muller is an excellent place to start. While it took me six months to read it, that’s a reflection of my time constraints, and not of the readability of the book.

All the same, if you’re not a physicist, then you’ll need to read this in a quiet environment. Constant interruptions will seriously degrade comprehension, far more than most books.

While watching SOUTH PARK today, I came to the realization that Eric Cartman is Donald J. Trump.

Beat the shit out of him, Wendy Testaberger!

Cerulean:

deep blue in color [Cambridge Dictionary]

Noted in “These bizarre lights in the sky hint at a way to predict earthquakes,” Nathaniel Scharping, NewScientist (6 May 2023, paywall):

Along with trembling buildings and shaking trees, those caught in the quake also witnessed something substantially more eerie. A barrage of blue lights, like flashes of cerulean lightning, lit up the night sky, apparently right above the fault line. This strange display was an example of what are known as “earthquake lights”, a semi-mythical phenomenon that has cropped up in reports of tremors for centuries.

This is from a couple of months ago:

Go with the wind! 🌬️
Our CMA CGM Marco Polo has been equipped with a new prototype of windshield that required 6 months of development and installation

The Purpose? Improve her aerodynamics, therefore reducing her fuel consumption and carbon footprint! 💨

— CMA CGM Group (@cmacgm) February 17, 2023

How useful is it? gCaptain reports:

Use of “windshields” was pioneered by Japanese shipping line Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) which installed its first one on board the MOL Marvel in 2015. The company later confirmed a 2% average CO2 emissions reduction at a sailing speed of 17 knots.

I suppose every little bit counts, and it’s not tied to the fuel type, so I like that as well.

Commensal:

Commensalism is a relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits, and one is unaffected. This can be contrasted with other types of symbiosis, such as mutualism and parasitism. The supposed difference between commensalism and other types of symbiosis is that in commensalism, the second party or host remains unaffected. Some scientist argue that this is likely improbable, and that most commensalism will be found to be mutualism or parasitism once the effects on the host can be appropriately studied. Other scientists argue that commensalism does exist when the effect on the host is imperceptible. [biology dictionary]

Noted in “The covid-19 virus affects our gut – but we still don’t know how,” Michael Marshall, NewScientist (6 May 2023, paywall):

However, a different picture emerges from studies that focused specifically on disruption to the gut microbiome, suggesting that this may be linked to an increased risk of death from covid-19. The stool samples that Ng and her team examined revealed that many helpful “commensal” bacteria can become depleted when people are infected with the coronavirus, while harmful ones become more populous. The fungi in the gut – the mycobiome – have shown similar disruptions. Crucially, those with more severe illness tended to have more disrupted microbiomes, mimicking the results of other studies.

Two recent events bring home the difficulties of assessing such events in an era of deep political polarization. The first is the CNN Townhall featuring former President Trump. First, lefty Steve Benen:

For those who keep an eye on Donald Trump’s rhetoric, much of last night’s ridiculous town hall event seemed awfully familiar. The former president lied about his election defeat, but he’d done that before. He blamed former Vice President Mike Pence for being in danger on Jan. 6, but also he’d done that before. He voiced support for pardoning Jan. 6 rioters, but he’d done that before, too.

The Republican praised Russia’s Vladimir Putin, said deeply offensive things about sexual assault, avoided direct answers on abortion policy, and peddled an avalanche of brazen lies. But again, none of this was especially unusual for Trump. [Maddowblog]

As might be expected, a touch of an insult meant to ridicule it. But, as WaPo notes in a news report, not all on the liberal side of the United States views it that way:

This is unsurprising news, given evangelicals’ embrace of the former President:

The long, slow decline of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination continues.

Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention [known as the SBC] was down by nearly half a million in 2022, according to a recently released denomination report. Nashville-based Lifeway Research reported Tuesday (May 9) that the SBC had 13.2 million members in 2022, down from 13.68 million in 2021. That loss of 457,371 members is the largest in more than a century, according to the Annual Church Profile compiled by Lifeway.

Once a denomination of 16.3 million, the SBC has declined by 1.5 million members since 2018, and by more than 3 million members since 2006. The COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the downturn, as did the reality that as older members die off, there are fewer young people to replace them. [Religion News]

This, no doubt, contributed to the decline:

[Delegates] at the [annual] meeting [in June] will also discuss the role of women in church leadership. Earlier this year, the SBC’s Executive Committee voted to expel several churches for having women pastors, including Saddleback Church, a California megachurch and one of the denomination’s largest congregations, for having women pastors. Saddleback is expected to appeal that decision.

But is this a theological dispute, an arbitrary display of power – or a concern that women leaders would be more likely to interfere with the general leadership inclination towards loyalty to former President Trump, who has been accused of, and even admitted to, sexual improprieties?

From the San Antonio Current:

With its Ghost Tracks, Donkey Lady and haunted hotels, San Antonio is home to an array of eerie places and urban legends, which may explain why it was recently ranked one of the nation’s most paranormal cities.

The Alamo City landed at No. 7 in a report published on Monday by online lawn-care service provider Lawn Love that purports to rank U.S. cities by their paranormal happenings.

Yep, a lawn care company. Kinda sad, except it’s the paranormal, so I laugh, instead. OK, chuckle.

Having lost his true love, here is Neo on a blind date. At a prom. She’s not charmed.

The Matrix Resurrections (2021) is self-indulgent in so many ways: nods to the audience and how it reacted to the first three movies; guns; magic masquerading as cool tech; self-doubt; progress in artificial intelligence; and, no doubt, several other topics I missed.

But, in case you’ve seen it and wondered, I deliberately omit gaming. Those gestures were weak and ineffective.

All to occult a love story.

And that’s about it. My Arts Editor had two comments: “His acting is so wooden”, and “The Easter Egg is the best part of the movie.” I might add that the CGI seemed faultless, and Thomas Anderson as a scruffy old dude had me sniggering.

But I concur with my Arts Editor. If you’re a Neal Patrick Harris completist, or, yes, a Keanu Reeves completist, then you have to see this. But I suggest you pre-grit your teeth.

Kathleen Parker’s opinion piece in WaPo on fiction writing and who is qualified to write what was, speaking as an aspiring fiction writer who never gets around to writing fiction, fascinating:

When it comes to the “evidence” that Joe Biden is corrupt that I mentioned in this previous Landgrebe nomination post, as asserted by Erick Erickson, well, Erickson appears to be another order-follower. Here’s WaPo’s Eugene Robinson on the matter:

Republicans who have been trying for years to “prove” that President Biden is somehow corrupt made a big show Wednesday of revealing their smear campaign to be a shameless, empty exercise in rumor and innuendo.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Steve Doocy, one of the hosts of the morning show “Fox & Friends,” which is normally the safest possible space for Republican politicians to trumpet their talking points.

“You don’t actually have any facts to that point,” Doocy said Thursday to House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who was trying to sell the idea that the president, his brother James and his son Hunter were part of some shadowy influence-peddling scheme. “And the other thing is, of all those names, the one person who didn’t profit is — there’s no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.”

That wasn’t the reaction Comer had hoped to get in a GOP-friendly venue the morning after his much-hyped news conference releasing the findings of the Oversight Committee’s investigation into the president’s family. You might have missed Comer’s event, because it happened while another Republican member of Congress, Rep. George Santos (N.Y.), was being taken into custody and arraigned on felony charges of wire fraud, money laundering and other federal crimes.

Apparently Doocy didn’t get the same memo as Erickson. Incidentally, I consider using sources from the adversary to refute an adversary’s killer assertion to be a superior approach to winning debates and arguments; it’s akin to aikido, which attempts to use the attacker’s energy to defend oneself.

Judging from Comer’s results, he just seems to be another fourth-rater, holding a press conference proclaiming victory in the face of overwhelming defeat.

… because Spring has lallygagged. Our first surprise is how the spurge is pushing back the frenetic ornamental onions:

We’re liking the “line the path” theme that we didn’t plan or encourage.

The power of positive gardening, maybe. Off to pull dandelions.

The former President’s loss in the E. Jean Carroll civil suit on accusations of sexual assault and defamation – but not rape – has provoked a visit or two from the ghost of former Rep. Earl Landgrebe, the owner of the quote, “Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve got a closed mind. I will not vote for impeachment. I’m going to stick with my president even if he and I have to be taken out of this building and shot,” in connection with his loyalty to then-President Nixon.

Let’s start with Senator Rubio (R-FL):

“That jury’s a joke. The whole case is a joke,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told reporters on Tuesday.

“If someone accuses me of raping them and I didn’t do it, and you’re innocent, of course you’re going to say something about it … it was a joke,” Rubio added of the defamation findings. [HuffPo]

Senator Tuberville (R-AL) gets in on the brown-nosing:

“It makes me want to vote for him twice,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told HuffPost when asked about the verdict. “They’re going to do anything they can to keep him from winning. It ain’t gonna work … people are gonna see through the lines; a New York jury, he had no chance.”[HuffPo]

Senator Scott (R-FL):

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), another Trump ally, simply repeated Trump’s denial of the allegation. “He said he didn’t do it,” Scott said. Asked if he could support someone found liable for sexual battery, the senator said, “I don’t know the facts. It’s a New York jury, too.”

One longs to hear Scott’s explanation, incoherent as it might be, for how it being a New York jury might be relevant.

So what’s going on? As I’ve mentioned before, Trump is not an accident or an invader, he is the product of a Republican Party whose culture directly produced a mendacious, boastful, grasping, and incompetent boob.

If his supporters condemn him, they condemn themselves through association: they are basically Trump’s ideological and moral siblings.  That’s not acceptable to them, so of course they’re not condemning him en masse.

Instead, it appears the strategy is minimization and distraction. Erick Erickson demonstrates the first here:

How is the Jean Carroll lawsuit, funded by Democrats, supposed to hurt Donald Trump? I mean, really. The man was caught on video talking about how women would let him grab them by their…you know… and he still won a presidential election.

A lawsuit funded by Democrats in New York City about events that happened decades ago and rejected the central accusation of rape will not be what does in Donald Trump. But don’t tell the Democrats. They believe, epistemically, that this is the beginning of the end of Donald Trump. See the video above. We’ve been promised the beginning of the end since he got elected when they said there was no way he could be elected.

Grabbing women didn’t stop his election. Adultery did not stop him. Porn stars did not stop him. This will not stop Donald Trump. Neither will Alvin Bragg’s silly prosecution that even Democrats roll their eyes at.

And the second here:

Joe Biden and his extended family have received at least $10 million in shady deals from foreign nationals during his time as Vice President. Hunter Biden and at least eight other family members were involved in the creation of at least 16 companies that profited from countries overlapping with the policy initiatives Joe Biden oversaw in the Obama admin…

As to this latter post, entitled “Damning Evidence of Biden Corruption,” and mostly behind a paywall, this is the first I’ve heard of it. That means maybe Erickson is right.

But his history isn’t encouraging. While I’ll be waiting to hear more about this report, which apparently comes from a House committee, I will not be surprised if it sinks into the swamp. It smells of distraction, it smells of moral equality. Our guy may be shit, but so’s yours!

And, meanwhile, the GOP Senate response to Trump’s loss in court remains an embarrassment to all concerned.

I don’t doubt this is a serious endeavour, but the visuals make me smile:

[Premature b]abies are laid on their front on the skateboard and strapped on so they can’t fall off. The slight elevation allows them to use their arms and legs to propel themselves forward. Very premature babies are unable to breastfeed, but the motions they use on the skateboard are similar to those of non-premature newborns who push themselves forwards if breastfeeding. [“Skateboard helps very premature babies develop their motor skills,” Alice Klein, NewScientist (29 April 2023, paywall)]

Amici:

1. plural of amicus [Wiktionary]

Ummmm, ok.

Amicus:

1. Abbreviation of amicus curiae. [Wiktionary]

Ummmmm, sure.

amicus curiae:

1. (law, US) A person or entity who has been allowed by the court to plead or make submissions but who is not directly involved in the action. quotations
2. (law, Canada) An independent lawyer, not retained by any party, whom the court has ordered to provide legal submissions regarding the matter in dispute; for example, to provide submissions regarding the situation of an unrepresented litigant or accused person. [Wiktionary]

Ah, a bunch of lawyers! Noted in “Why the Supreme Court should have stepped up on Indiana’s fetal burial law,” Elizabeth Reiner Platt, Religion News Service:

Though amici did not get their day in court Monday, it’s increasingly clear that courts will not be able to avoid growing conflicts between ever-expanding religious liberty doctrine and draconian regulations of reproductive health care.

Exhausted, I am.