Author Archives: Hue White

When your superpower grosses you out, who do you call?

Renfield (2023) is that movie you’ve always dreamed of making, Count Dracula and his minion having to deal with a world that is self-conscious and has schadenfreude. A world in which evil vs evil can still lead to cheerleading.

Where corruption can, indeed, be burned right down to the ground by a dumpy cop and her stuttering … whatever he is.

That the stuttering Renfield is actually reminiscent of the acting style of Hugh Grant is a bit disquieting, I have to admit, and the violence is that inflated sort where, after a while, all you can do is groan and cry out, ARE YOU KIDDING?!

And if it doesn’t quite match its trailer, it’s still better than most, as Dracula chews the scenery, the bad guys, the good guys, and his own sense of angst. Or is it ennui?

No way I’ll recommend this, but having said that, it has its own ghoulish sense of humor and even class.

And if Renfield’s stuttering bothers you, just remember: Hugh Grant also made the beastly Lair of the White Worm (1988). Eeeeyagh.

Coir:

the prepared fiber of the husk of the coconut fruit, used in making rope, matting, etc. [Dictionary.com]

Noted in “Microgreens: The surprising truth about this trendy new ‘superfood’,” Chris Stokel-Walker, NewScientist (October 14-20, 2023; paywall):

I currently have a collection of mixed lettuce leaves growing alongside radish, mustard and rocket. Next to them, a couple of ice cream tubs house parsley, coriander and red basil seeds waiting to germinate, their roots exploring the coconut coir beneath – a growth medium derived from the husks of coconuts (see “How to grow microgreens”, below). Next on my wish list are peas, kohlrabi, broccoli and sunflowers.

Sorry, the title is the best I can do at this time of the morning after cleaning up cat barf. Dr. Tony Phillips of Spaceweather leads a balloon-borne effort to monitor atmospheric radiation, and a year ago they lost a balloon in the Western USA mountains. Where is it?

Under a glacier.

A glacier (US: /ˈɡleɪʃər/; UK: /ˈɡlæsiər,ˈɡleɪsiər/) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs, as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines, or fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

Yeah. Glaciers are not snow, but ice. How did his balloon end up under a glacier? Either mischievous goblins, or glaciers, at least small glaciers, can form really fast.

More here.

Those who’ve kept up on their political scandals reading are well aware that former President Trump has been compared, on more than one occasion, to a Mob boss, albeit an exceedingly clumsy and, I think, irrational Mob boss. MSNBC’s Lisa Rubin, herself a former litigator and writing on Maddowblog, implicitly suggests Fulton County (GA) District Attorney Fani Willis would agree, based on tactics, as the boss is always the most important target in criminal trials involving the Mob:

[Judge] McAfee received news that not only changed his day but his next few months: Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged mastermind of the so-called fake elector scheme, had agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit the filing of false documents. …

More significantly, [if Chesebro had gone to trial,] it would have given [his] co-defendants — including Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Mark Meadows — a preview of the DA’s overall racketeering case.

I can’t help but wonder if Willis seemingly drastic reduction in charges, from seven to one I read somewhere, to which Chesebro pled reflects the urgency of not tipping Trump, Guiliani, et al, to her attack strategy.

For those unfamiliar with the Mob, they’ve been some of the most dangerous criminals in American history. Grouping Trump and his cronies with them isn’t a compliment, but as assessment of their methods and the potential for danger they were bringing. Indeed, while they were themselves a pack of incompetent boobs with little concept of honor and truth, that for which they strove was extraordinarily dangerous.

And thus I have little sympathy for their supporters.

There’s been enough raving about Chicago (2002), winner of six Academy Awards, and they’re richly deserved, as watching this story of women on death row in a Chicago prison, and how they deal, or fail to deal, with their potential fates, told through song, dance, and flashback, is a riveting story.

But it’s worth noting the undercurrent of most of those stories, the theme that ties them together. While it’s true that there’s corruption and gangs and violence in the story, what struck  me as the unifying theme was the misbalance of power in the traditional roles of man and woman in America in the early years of the 20th century, which certainly reaches a millennia and more back. We can see it in the lead story, that of Roxie Hart, a housewife and wannabe stage star, who succumbs to the boasts and blandishments of salesman Fred Casely, who claims he can put her on the stage of the nightclub Onyx; after several intimate encounters, he doesn’t confess so much that he lied, as he boasts about it. He fears no repercussions. Such is the role of the man.

So when she shoots him, he’s surprised. At least for a brief moment, until he’s finished bleeding out.

So is she. And now, because we know that a jury of the period will most likely find her guilty and quite possibly send her to the electric chair, despite the mitigating circumstances, the lying begins: to journalists, to judges, to lawyers, to whoever will listen. There’s no discussion balancing risk vs reward, there’s simply lying, and a bit of misdirection. When Roxie’s husband, the naive Amos, hears that she’s pregnant, then his repugnance, developed from her violence and implied sexual wantonness, is forgotten; then, when the reality that he cannot be the father is thrust upon him, he once again resumes his hatred of Roxie, and, importantly, the company of the inflamed mob. There is no constancy, no respect for her as a person, merely a somewhat defensible reaction based on her activities and how they conflict with the common man’s morality of the time period.

Brought about because a cheating woman killed a cheating, lying man.

But for some, the cheating and lying is secondary; simply the fact that Roxie had to cheat, had to circumvent husband Amos, in order to work towards her dreams, is enough to prove the point, to the extent that a movie can prove a point, that the power misbalance of the era was unjust.

And it’s not a bad argument to make.

Chicago is a fascinating peek into the mores of 1920s Chicago, or at least what the storytellers imagined it to be, and is exceedingly well done. Recommended.

CNN/Politics has chosen a curious way to publish the list of Republican Representatives who voted in the futile effort to find a Speaker yesterday, with the official nominees being Rep Jeffries (D-NY) and Rep Jordan (R-OH):

uri=”cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/paragraph_14BA688F-B677-5D9E-EDEA-3ECCED0AE963@published” data-editable=”text” data-component-name=”paragraph” data-article-gutter=”true”>Twenty Republicans voted against Jordan’s candidacy, far more than the handful he could afford to lose given the party’s narrow majority in Congress.

These are the House Republicans who voted against Jordan:

1. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska voted for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
2. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon voted for McCarthy
3. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito of New York voted for former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York
4. …

There’s actually no listing of who voted for Jordan.

That’s interesting, because if voters want to find out who their Rep voted for, they’ll have to dig further if they insist on being sure.

I think this omission is more interesting than perhaps most might. Guilt by association, well, it must make some of these Reps a bit ill. And, no, I don’t care if Erick Erickson thinks Jordan is a “good man.” I just don’t. Jordan’s been a clown in Congress, unable to pass any legislation, and even managed to earn former Speaker Boehner’s (R-OH) contempt; I shudder to think what’ll happen if Jordan wins.

For those not keeping up with the governmental news, he lost again on his second try today, and, in fact, lost ground. Are they picking their ext sacrificial goat?

Or will the few moderate Republicans, probably those from New York, turn to the Democrats for help?

Modified bacteria in a solid tumor!

More information from skralyx on Daily Kos.

I played a little chess in high school, but my involvement was quite low, and plunged to zero after that, so this surprised me in every aspect:

In chess, most tournaments are open categories where men and women compete on an equal footing. There are a few, though, that are restricted to women only, such as the Women’s World Chess Championship. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has placed a moratorium on trans-identified males in women’s chess events, to take effect Aug. 21. FIDE noted in its handbook that “this is an evolving issue for chess” with further policy evolving “in line with research evidence.” Indignation was immediately voiced on X (formerly Twitter): “This is so insulting to cis women, to trans women, and to the game itself. It assumes that cis women couldn’t be competitive against cis men.” [Barbara Kay, The Epoch Times via Reality’s Last Stand]

It’s worth noting that The Epoch Times is highly conservative, with a Chinese twist, so it could be suspect. Still, if there are women-only competitions and now trans-women are banned from them, it either says something about the politics of the administrative body, or something about the facts on the ground. Given that the administrative body is probably not highly political outside of its context, it would seem the assertions concerning women and trans-women being the same are likely false.

There’s been some rumblings about training artificial intelligences (better termed machine learning) on data from the Web, and those rumblings have been negative, as it seems to be training data obtained for free, not to mention that much of it’s fallacious.

But Metaculus, a manager of contests for predicting the resolution of international crises, has gone a step further, as noted in an email notification from same:

• You may not train, create, or otherwise develop an AI or ML model or algorithm using Metaculus’s data or content found on Metaculus without Metaculus’s written permission.

Their full Terms of Use is here.

The Web is huge, of course, so I’m sure they are not the first, just the first to come to my notice. I expect there’ll be more, but will they have a practical effect? Hard to say, but it should be interesting, as free web sites are “educating” human beings for free, so why not machine learning algorithms?

Can the courts figure that one out?

Remember the impact of the 9/11/2021 attacks on the approval ratings of the Administration in 2001?

Source: Gallup

Yeah, that was the jump from 51% to 90%. So what about Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, which, if you’ve been exploring holes in the ground in the backyard and hadn’t heard, was viciously attacked recently by opponent and terrorist organization Hamas? Is Israel a mini-USA?

Apparently not.

A poll shows public support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies collapsing in the wake of Hamas’s deadly assault on southern Israel, with voters shifting to Benny Gantz’s National Unity party in the wake of his decision to join the government and form a wartime cabinet.

The survey, published by Maariv, gives the centrist National Unity 41 seats, up from the 12 it currently holds. Likud meanwhile drops to just 19 seats, well below the 32 it currently has. The poll gives hardline parties Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism five and four seats respectively. The two garnered 14 seats together in the last election. Ultra-Orthodox parties are also seen losing a modicum of support.

The results show how much the Hamas massacre, which saw the terror group rampage through southern Israel, killing at least 1,300 and taking some 150 hostages, has punctured people’s faith in the country’s leadership and their claims of being the only ones who could secure the country. Leaders often receive a boost in support thanks to the rally around the flag effect, but the enormity of the slaughter and the depth of the intelligence and security failure have instead led to an implosion for Netanyahu and Co. [The Times of Israel]

Because of Netanyahu’s desperation to remain in power, partially due to criminal proceedings against him, he’s been willing to sign up right wing extremist parties by making promises, such as excusing certain religious groups from mandatory military service. This has led to reports of resentment among the Israelielectorate.

I expect we’ll be hearing reports of change in the government and overall society over the next few years. Netanyahu will, I’m guessing, retire from politics, possibly after one more abortive run for office, and then he’ll be allocating his time to his legal affairs.

And Israeli society, which had been barreling right, will ask itself if a more centrist approach to governance is wiser.

Noteworthy?

Asked GOP Rep. Austin Scott about how the GOP leadership crisis makes them look. “It makes us look like a bunch of idiots,” he told me

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 13, 2023

Long time readers know I’ve been predicting the Republican Party’s mad dash to the right for years. Extremists, regardless of ideology, share a few characteristics, among them arrogance, a belief that their opinions certainly can’t be wrong.

This failure to recognize the difficulties of discerning truth and understanding the lessons to be derived from events makes for a very short hop to … idiocy.

My congratulations to Rep Scott for his successful discernment of a truth that he may not be entirely proud of.

Following the removal of Rep McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker, the Republicans are exhibiting A-level accomplishments in being incompetent to work as a Party. Instead, as I and many other pundits have predicted, they’re exhibiting the nauseating characteristics of a small spoiled child: not taking direction, not willing to compromise, playing the “ME ME ME” game, denying reality, denying knowledge of reality, and generally being pathological personalities.

No doubt there was some hopes for progress when Rep Scalise (R-LA) won the GOP nomination to be Speaker, but it can be plausibly argued he only won enough votes to win, but not to dominate. Putting an exclamation point on the matter is that Scalise, the nominal winner of the vote, dropped out of the race this evening.

The swift downfall of Scalise’s speakership nomination came just a day after the GOP conference voted for him over Rep. Jim Jordan, 113-99. The withdrawal was as shocking as it was predictable, after a band of Republicans almost immediately blocked his path and said there was no way they would vote for Scalise as speaker. The move deepens the House GOP leadership crisis, with still no indication there is any viable candidate who could secure the 217 votes needed to win the gavel.

Scalise’s primary competition was Rep Jordan (R-OH), who has proven incompetent as a committee chairman and accused of covering up the sexual predatory behaviors of Richard Strauss, a team physician at Ohio State University, an accusation made by OSU wrestlers. Just to keep things light, his supporter Rep Nancy Mace (R-SC), herself a rape survivor, claims she’s never heard of these well-publicized claims.

Like I said, child-like behaviors.

Whether it’s Scalise, Jordan, or my favorite, Rep Emmer (R-MN), it doesn’t really matter. The Party lost its way back in the 1990s under Rep Gingrich’s leadership, and has never found its way back. This seems to be a terminal condition now, though, and only unreasoning loathing of alternatives is keeping them as a credible power.

And that’s leaking away.

Tricoteuses:

Tricoteuse (French pronunciation: [tʁikɔtøz]) is French for a knitting woman. The term is most often used in its historical sense as a nickname for the women in the French Revolution who sat in the gallery supporting the left-wing politicians in the National Convention, attended the meetings in the Jacobin club, the hearings of the Revolutionary Tribunal and sat beside the guillotine during public executions, supposedly continuing to knit. The performances of the Tricoteuses were particularly intense during the Reign of Terror. [Wikipedia]

French? Hell, yeah. A substantial fraction of English words are French extracts. Noted in “A Culture Primed For Indecency,” Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly Dish (paywall):

And indecent gawkers. “It’s good to make fun of people who support criminals when they get murdered by criminals,” commented one on Twitter. “Ryan Carson took the phrase ‘bleeding heart liberal’ way too literally,” said another. (Carson’s actual heart was pierced by the murder weapon.) Other virtual tricoteuses went after the traumatized bystander: “Ryan Carson’s girlfriend is the Douche of the Week. 1. Showed almost no concern as her guy was murdered. 2. Expressed zero concern as he lay on the ground dying. Didn’t even bend down. 3. Refused to give police the murderer’s description. Soulless Marxist.” Another: “WHAT??? Ryan Carson’s girlfriend … started a GoFundMe page to make money off his death. I would tell her to eat trash but that’s cannibalism.” Or this: “She didn’t react when he was stabbed but she sure didn’t hesitate to raise $50k on go fund me. Makes you wonder.”

Culture will coarsen until some incident, linkable to that coarsening, occurs and shocks a large majority of folks into shame. Others, who value their social prestige more than an intellectual honesty, will remain coarse, using various weak excuses for their utterances and sometimes, even, actions. But this coarsening serves to give those being coarse a reason to feel superior not only to the victim, but the victim’s associates and ideological comrades.

In 2019, Andy Beshear (D-KY) became Governor Beshear after upsetting incumbent Governor Matt Bevin (R-KY) in a squeaker, 49.2% to 48.8%. Trading on a famous political name and widespread dismay at Governor Bevin’s performance, more of which can be found at the reader’s discretion, Beshear had moved up from the state’s Attorney General position, which he had won in 2015 in another close election.

Beshear is running for re-election now, and common conservative wisdom might have it that the Kentucky governor’s seat would be a prime candidate to be flipped. With Kentucky running this election in November of 2023, just four weeks away, how close will this race be?

Emerson College Polling, a highly rated pollster by FiveThirtyEight, seems to think it won’t be close.

A new Emerson College Polling survey of Kentucky voters finds incumbent Democratic Governor Andy Beshear with 49% support in the upcoming November gubernatorial election, while a third of voters (33%) plan to support Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Five percent plan to vote for someone else, while 13% are undecided.

Emerson College is not infallible, and there’s still room for Cameron to make a comeback, yes, but it’s a steep hill to climb. Republicans have to be concerned, because, at least using the On The Issues summation, Cameron isn’t the worst conservative in the world. However, the key may be his apparently unapologetic support for anti-abortion laws. While such a position may hearten conservatives, the fact of the matter is that telling women their lives are optional is not a positive approach to politics, no matter how zealously one believes abortion is evil.

If a Democratic governor looks unbeatable in Republican stronghold Kentucky, that’s a big red flag for conservatives. But while some of them may realize those flags are red, those who are in charge, who are most zealous, may also be color-blind when it comes to the flags that are waving.

Democrats had better hope the Republican Party Civil War being waged between the moderates and the far-right extremists does not cease, because it promises to make 2024 a year to remember.

For both Parties.

Nomenclators:

One once-common variant of the substitution cipher is the nomenclator. Named after the public official who announced the titles of visiting dignitaries, this cipher uses a small code sheet containing letter, syllable and word substitution tables, sometimes homophonic, that typically converted symbols into numbers. Originally the code portion was restricted to the names of important people, hence the name of the cipher; in later years, it covered many common words and place names as well. The symbols for whole words (codewords in modern parlance) and letters (cipher in modern parlance) were not distinguished in the ciphertext. The Rossignols‘ Great Cipher used by Louis XIV of France was one. [Wikipedia]

Not quite a match for my example, though, which is in “How scientists are cracking historical codes to reveal lost secrets,” Joshua Howgego, NewScientist (23 September 2023, paywall):

But unless your cipher is very basic, it won’t stop there. Many historical ciphers also contain elements called nomenclators, symbols that represent syllables, whole common words or names. These can be extremely hard to crack unless you have some sense of what the letter is about or who wrote it and can make an educated guess about what the nomenclators mean. Sometimes, these symbols can even be “nulls” – characters that have no meaning and should be discounted – just to throw adversaries off the scent.

Perhaps an example of language changing over time? In any case, a fascinating intro article on the automation of encryption breaking. No mention of everyone’s favorite encrypted, or so at least some speculate, manuscript, the Voynich Manuscript.

The GOP, especially in the House, is approaching a decision point. I don’t know if they are conscious of it, but it’s coming. Greg Sargent of WaPo’s description of the GOP caucus in the House, nominally of a majority party, is illustrative:

I’ve been reading about this research for a decade or two, and I’m glad to see it’s coming to fruition, as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) must be a horrific condition. The title, from NewScientist (23 September 2023, paywall), says it all: MDMA therapy for PTSD expected to get US approval after latest trial.

The latest study involved 104 people in the US and Israel diagnosed with moderate to severe PTSD, of whom 27 per cent identified as Hispanic or Latino and 7 per cent identified as another ethnicity or race other than white. This group is more representative of people with PTSD in the US, so the results can give more confidence that the treatment will work in a wider population, says Mitchell.

In the study, the participants all received three therapy sessions spaced a month apart. Half the group received a dose of MDMA with their therapy sessions, while the other half received a placebo pill.

Following these three therapy sessions, the researchers found that 71.2 per cent of the MDMA group no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, compared with 47.6 per cent of the placebo group.

Illegal drugs are drugs for which we just haven’t found a use, yet.

Valedictory:

relating to saying goodbye, especially formally [Cambridge Dictionary]

I would have thought I’d know valedictory at this point, but no. Interesting. Noted in “McCarthy became the latest victim of Trump’s extreme GOP revolution,” Stephen Collinson, CNN/Politics:

“I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance,” McCarthy said, putting a brave face on his humiliation in a valedictory news conference that capped a speakership that had always seemed to be on a short-term lease.

Left scratching like the rest of us.

With the exit of Representative and now-former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from center-stage, and his vow not to seek the seat again – possibly a lie – who will be stuck with Excedrin headache #9 next?

That’ll depend on the strength of the allegiance of the ordinary House GOP member. If it’s strong enough, the Freedom Caucus which deposed McCarthy, with it must be said the overwhelming support of the House Democrats, can nominate and run one of its own. Indeed, Ringleader Gaetz may wish to consider being the Speaker himself, as that might permit the squelching of an Ethics Committee investigation that endangers his position.

But if that allegiance isn’t strong enough, then either moderate GOP members of the House will need to make common cause with the Democrats, thereby enraging the Freedom Caucus again, or the House will have to limp along, accomplishing virtually nothing, until early January of … 2025. Unless the debt ceiling crisis scheduled for roughly forty days from now really scrambles the power dynamic.

My money’s on nearly a year and a half of being crippled.

Will the entire Freedom Caucus be primaried for the next election? Or will the ordinary citizens of those districts be pleased that their Representatives have crippled the Federal government, thereby endangering national security?

While watching Stephen Colbert’s interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tyson’s commentary on the Mexican aliens presented to their legislative branch, and upon hearing that a locked box containing, allegedly, another alien was presented to the American Congress, my Arts Editor commented:

Ah! It’s Heisenberg’s Alien!

From a couple of days ago:

Tyromancy:

Tyromancy is the ancient practice of fortune-telling through the observation of cheese, and its renaissance is being conjured here in Chicago by local “kitchen witch” Jennifer Billock. [“Reading Between The Rinds: Local Woman Can Read Your Fortune Using Cheese,” Linze Rice, Block Club Chicago]

Ya gotta be kidding.

The government shutdown is in the process of being averted:

• Congress has passed a stopgap funding measure within hours of its deadline to prevent a federal government shutdown. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for approval, and the White House has indicated he will sign it.
• The Senate approved the measure Saturday evening after the House abruptly reversed course earlier in the day and passed a bipartisan bill. The bill needed support from two-thirds of House members to pass under an expedited process.
• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s job could now be on the line. Hardline conservatives threatened to oust him if he relied on Democratic votes to avert a shutdown.
• The stopgap bill will keep the government open through November 17 and includes natural disaster aid but not additional funding for Ukraine, due to objections from some conservatives. The Biden administration has warned this would have serious consequences for the war.

Only 45 days of funding, which seems a trifle absurd. As an engineer, though, I’m inclined to fix problems as permanently as possible.

This isn’t it.

I’ve gotta wonder about the unannounced tradeoffs. Did the Democrats agree to support McCarthy’s ego by voting to keep him in the Speaker’s chair if a member of the Freedom Caucus tries to vote him out? Did McCarthy promise to try to expel anyone as I’ve suggested?

And what about the Ukraine support? Will Biden sign? My reader will probably know by the time they read this, but I could see Biden rejecting the legislation on those grounds, because the Putin’s War is one of the most important events of the decade, a chance to kick a national adversary in the shin and remind them that democracies will be successful governing models.

But 45 days suggests preparation time of some sort. Are the Democrats betting the Republicans can commit suicide in that period? The Republicans believe they can inflict some damage on the Democrats, despite a record of shocking futility in this Congress so far?

Stay tuned.

And … Erick Erickson is pissed, but he still doesn’t get it. It’s not just a few bad apples in a barrel. It’s a toxic culturing medium that leads to an empty leadership corp, which is then taken over by vile opportunists like McCarthy, Gaetz, Boebert, Greene, Gosar, Perry, and etc, all incompetent fourth-raters. The Republican Party, for so long as it clings to Gingrich’s Dictums of extremism, blind loyalty, and refusing to work with Democrats on a regular basis, will continue to be the party of the fourth-raters. Such is the fruits of a toxic team culture.

Add in the arrogance that both parties possess and it’s a recipe for disaster.

DPGA:

[Fei Wang at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and his colleagues] called the building blocks of their computer DNA-based programmable gate arrays (DPGA), and each DPGA could be designed to implement over 100 billion distinct circuits by adding different short molecules into its tube.

In one experiment, they connected three DPGAs, comprising about 500 DNA strands, to make a circuit that solves quadratic equations, and in another, they made a circuit for taking square roots. They input numbers by adding molecules of a specific shape that then participated in chemical reactions with molecules that made up the circuit, analogous to an electron moving through wires. [“DNA-based computer can run 100 billion different programs,” Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, NewScientist (23 September 2023, no paywall)]

For those not in the know, there are things called FPGAs: Field Programmable Gate Arrays. They permit mimicking CPUs, creating custom solutions at the hardware level, and other gimcrackery. Sadly, I’ve never worked with them, and don’t know much more than that. I believe a roboticist of my acquaintance works with them, but I’ve not discussed it at great length with her.

And programming with DNA seems trippy.