Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
19 June 2022
You can find the obituary for Barbara Lenton (aka Barb Byro/Freya in Federation game) here: https://www.ibgames.net/alan/barb/barbobit.html
Well, this issue has plenty of reads to choose from. There’s material on how drugs get to where they are supposed to go, ‘whataboutism’, and a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox. And that’s just in the essays section. Other issues looked at include the relative sizes of the solar system planets, ACM archives on-line, an alternative view on solar energy, fiber through the waterpipe, the gig economy, the Mogul empire, and the Metaverse.
There are some nice pictures – Strawberry moon, and a lighthouse, and there is a cynical, but probably true, quote.
There’s also a slew of scanner items for extra reading on topics such as Central Bank Digital Currencies, the HTTP/3 RFC, nuking the moon, mercury thrusters, a billion pounds of cheese, Tesla, Pink Floyd, and finally an unusual job.
Phew! Enjoy!
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: Next issue 26 June
Credits: Thanks to Fi Craig for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down and for editing it for spelling, grammar, etc.
Essays:
Have you ever wondered just how it is that when you take a drug for some ailment, it gets to the right place? I confess that I’d never really thought about it until a few years ago when I ended up with an infected cat scratch on my foot and the doctor prescribed oral antibiotics. I do remember thinking that it seemed a very roundabout way of going about things.
Well, Science Alert has a fascinating short essay by a professor of pharmaceutical sciences explaining just how the drug you take gets to the right place.
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-pharmaceutical-scientist-explains-how-drugs-know-where-to-go-in-the-body
The Conversation has an interesting piece on ‘Whataboutism’. That’s the tactic in arguments of saying,” But what about...” Children are experts at using the phrase, but over the years it has crept more and more into politics. So, Boris, what about your parties?
https://theconversation.com/whataboutism-what-it-is-and-why-its-such-a-popular-tactic-in-arguments-182911
I note that a couple of researchers at the California Institute of Technology have proposed an interesting solution to the Fermi Paradox. Physicist Enrico Fermi asked why, given that the size of the Universe makes it unlikely that only the Earth would have intelligent life, haven’t seen any evidence of them?
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-planetary-scientists-solution-fermi-paradox.html
Astronomy:
I’ve sometimes discovered in conversations just how most people’s perception of how big the planets in the solar system are in relation to one another is wrong. Clearly, I’m not the only one to have noticed this because astronomer James O’Donoghue has now put together an animation that shows the relative sizes of the planets – and the sun!
An excellent piece of work.
https://www.sciencealert.com/astrophysicists-mind-blowing-animation-shows-the-true-scale-of-our-solar-system
Computing History:
Good news for those interested in the history of computing – The Association for Computing Machinery is putting the first 50 years of its archives online to mark its 75th birthday. That’s over 117,500 documents from the period between 1951 and 2000. History in the making!
https://associationsnow.com/2022/05/the-way-things-were-why-open-access-to-the-acm-digital-library-matters/
Energy:
I thought long and hard before including this article on the downside of solar power. In the event I thought it was worth drawing your attention to it, because it deals with issues that are rarely included in material about solar panels. And, it seems, the views expressed are, at least to some extent, backed up by the Harvard Business Review. The author is a known proponent of nuclear power. See what you think.
https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-everything-they-said-about-solar
Fiber:
In an interesting experiment parts of the UK’s Yorkshire county are about to get their broadband delivered through mains water pipes. It’s a fascinating idea, and if it proves workable would both cut the cost of delivering broadband to agricultural areas of the UK, and the need to dig up urban areas quite so much.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/07/south_yorkshire_to_trial_fiber/
The Gig Economy:
The Conversation has an interesting piece on the gig economy, in which it predicts that many of the firms that thrived during the pandemic will fail in the next period. Why? Well, there are a number of issues ranging from using investor cash to subsidise meals in order to build up their customer base, to reduced demand as people cope with inflation. And that’s even before you look at the fact that investors are now starting to look for a return on their investments...
https://theconversation.com/gig-economy-ride-hailing-and-takeaway-firms-may-not-survive-the-cost-of-living-crisis-184581
History:
Did you know that the Mongol Empire was run by women? It never occurred to me, but it’s obvious – while the men were, so to speak, carving out an empire, the women they left behind were running things. Atlas Obscura has a fascinating piece about this – well worth a read!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mongol-empire-women
Social Media:
The Guardian has a disturbing report about what it is like to enter the Metaverse. Pretty horrifying, it turns out, in a report published a few weeks ago. I’m not a social media person, but even if I was I would be avoiding it like the plague...
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/apr/25/a-barrage-of-assault-racism-and-jokes-my-nightmare-trip-into-the-metaverse
Pictures:
The Smithsonian magazine has a nice picture entitled ‘Lighthouse at Sunrise’
https://photocontest.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/detail/the-lighhouse/
There have been lots of good pictures of the ‘strawberry’ moon over the last week, but the one I liked best was one taken over The Needles on the UK’s Isle of White. See what you think...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-61809855
Quotes:
“The Defense Industry Is Winning in Ukraine”
Headline in the ‘Forever Wars’ blog
Scanner:
Are Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) kryptonite for crypto?
https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/2022/04/06/cbdcs-kryptonite-for-crypto
IETF publishes HTTP/3 RFC to take the web from TCP to UDP
https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/07/http3_rfc_9114_published/
Secret US defense program proposed nuking the moon, documents reveal
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-secret-us-defense-program-spent-millions-looking-into-bizarre-sci-fi-technology
Mercury Thrusters: A world wide disaster averted just in time
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/18/mercury-thrusters-a-worldwide-disaster-averted-just-in-time/
Why did the U.S. Government amass more than a billion pounds of cheese?
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/government-cheese
Tesla Autopilot accounts for 70% of driver assist crashes, says US traffic safety body
https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/15/tesla_autopilot_accounts_for_70/
Help wanted at Antarctica base to manage gift shop and count penguins
https://boingboing.net/2022/04/07/help-wanted-at-antarctica-base-to-manage-gift-shop-and-count-penguins.html
Pink Floyd’s entire studio discography is now on YouTube: Stream the studio & live albums
https://www.openculture.com/2021/12/pink-floyds-entire-studio-discography-is-now-on-youtube-stream-the-studio-live-albums.html
Footnote:
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Thunderbird spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
19 June 2022
Alan Lenton is a retired on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist (among other things), the order of which depends on what he is currently working on! His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/index.html.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
If you have any questions or comments about the articles on my web site, click here to send me email.