Featured Links - August 21, 2023

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

Water lilies at the marina

• Patient advocates warn FDA proposal on salt intake could do fatal harm to people with kidney disease. "Kidney advocacy organizations are warning that the proposal could lead to unnecessary deaths because the regulation would increase the use of one popular salt substitute: potassium chloride. Patients with chronic kidney disease, including end-stage renal disease, can’t properly excrete potassium from their bodies and excess potassium levels in the blood, known as hyperkalemia, can lead to cardiac arrhythmias and sudden heart failure."
• Neuroscientists Re-create Pink Floyd Song from Listeners’ Brain Activity. "Artificial intelligence has turned the brain’s electrical signals into somewhat garbled classic rock." This is rather mind boggling. 
• The Peripheral Canceled After Prime Video Undoes Season 2 Renewal. "Months after getting approved for a second season, the sci-fi series has become a one-and-done as studios try to cut costs during the Hollywood strikes."
• Here’s the Plan to Take Montana’s Massive Climate Win Nationwide. "A Montana court ruled that youth have a right to a livable climate. Now, lawsuits around the country are working to build on that success." Shades of Kim Stanley Robinsons The Ministry for the Future.
• 2023 Aurora Awards and CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees. "The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) today presented the 2023 Aurora Awards for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror in a ceremony livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook. This year’s returning hosts were Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz May Anderson. The awards recognize works done by Canadians in 2022. CSFFA members submitted a total of 177 ballots. Awards administrator Clifford Samuels says complete voting statistics will be released in the next day or so."
• Babylon 5 Is a Perfect, Terrible Series. "Babylon 5 is one of the best science fiction shows ever made. It also kind of sucks, and that’s okay."
• The Coming Enshittification of Public Libraries. "Global investment vampires have positioned themselves to suck our libraries dry." End stage capitalism will mean the end stage of libraries, and guess what that means for civilization.