Featured Links - April 2, 2024

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

Two lonely swans

• A Brief Guide to the Fiction of Vernor Vinge. "From his earliest novels to his magnum opus, Vinge crafted inventive, insightful works of hard science fiction." I can't recommend A Fire Upon the Deep highly enough. 
• This Woman Deconstructs 100-Year-Old Books To Restore Them (YouTube link). "Author, educator and book restorer Sophia Bogle has nerves of steel: one slip of the hand and a century-old first edition book could be ruined. Come inside her workshop as she breaks down the amazing deconstruction, revitalization, and reassembly that goes into her history preserving speciality."
• Your Air Fryer Is Just a Little Oven That Blows. "I'm sorry, but everything you know about your little, windy countertop oven is a lie." We don't have one, and as the article points out, our convection oven would probably work quite well for a lot of things you would do in an air fryer.
• Long-Lost Bombs From the World Wars Are Increasingly Likely to Blow Up, Scientists Say. "Live ordnance buried and forgotten after past conflicts may be become more sensitive to impacts as they age."
• Early arrival of spring in Ontario this year has screwed so many things up. "Even if the trend has meant some surprise (and very welcomed) patio days weeks ahead of schedule, it's also led to serious and noticeable impacts on local ecosystems." And not just in Ontario. 
• ‘We are essentially in a new Gilded Age’: As workers get laid off, CEOs and shareholders gobble up hundreds of billions in profits. "Taking a modern-century spin on “Let them eat cake,” shareholders are having the whole cake, and eating it too. It’s no shock the boardroom is able to stay above the fray as wealthy members are more equipped to weather economic downturns. But it turns out CEOs and shareholders are walking away with an even greater slice of profits than one might think." The emphasis on maximizing shareholder value has always bothered me, and don't get me started on the ridiculous compensation of CEOs. 
• One Of The World’s Most Important Ocean Currents Really Is Slowing Down. "It’s what oceanographers have feared, but had difficulty proving." Consequences include a colder Europe and warmer tropics.
• Climate models can’t explain 2023’s huge heat anomaly — we could be in uncharted territory. "Taking into account all known factors, the planet warmed 0.2 °C more last year than climate scientists expected. More and better data are urgently needed."