Featured Links - November 25, 2024

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

The bay on a grey day

• Summary of the Hyperactive 2024 Hurricane Season. "The 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season will finally come to an end on November 30, and by any measure, it was an extremely active and impactful season."
• How the 15-minute city idea became a misinformation-fuelled fight that’s rattling GTA councils. (archive link) "The idea of making cities walkable and livable has helped fuel a conspiracy theory that is throwing local meetings into chaos — and is already changing the way councils work." The article includes a section about my local city council, which has had major problems with a particular right-wing councillor and her followers.
• This Wasp Was Brought To Christmas Island In 2017—7 Years Later A Struggling Species Thrives. "Since the micro-wasp was introduced in 2017, the red crab migration has been seeing better numbers. While last year’s migration was delayed owing to a lack of timely rainfall, the crabs appear to have roared back to life this year."
• Supervolcano shows signs of waking up, which would plunge the world into chaos. "The Phlegraean Fields, now considered one massive supervolcano, are beginning to stir, making the scientific community uneasy." The article headline is a bit hyperbolic.
• Mechanically strong yet metabolizable supramolecular plastics by desalting upon phase separation. "A strong, glassy supramolecular polymer has been shown to prevent the formation of marine microplastics by slowly dissolving in salt water into metabolizable compounds." This could be important, assuming it can be made commercially at scale.
• The Gift of Preparedness 2024. Instead of giving ugly sweaters for Christmas gifts, give items that could be useful in an emergency or disaster. 
• NASA is stacking the Artemis II rocket, implying a simple heat shield fix. "NASA expects it to take about four months to fully assemble the main parts of the SLS rocket." Finally!
• Jan. 6 as Foundational Event for the Coming American Autocracy. "This is the first in a series of essays about political violence and how to combat it. Here I focus on Jan. 6 as a historic event that prepared the psychological, social, and political climate for an authoritarian politics of violence by breaking taboos against assaulting the Capitol and hunting down lawmakers."