Taking a Break - Merry Christmas

It's that festive time of the year again and it's time to take a break from blogging. I'll be back here early in the New Year. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the season and I'll see you again in January.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Using the Windows 11 Magnifier

I just discovered that Windows 11 has a magnifier function that you can enable under Settings > Accessibility. Once enabled, you open it with the Windows Key + Plus Key combination. 

By default, it gives you a 200% magnification of the full screen. I don't usually need that much so I have set it to 150%. You can set it to magnify an area around the mouse cursor if you prefer. I now have it set to turn on when I log in and have pinned it to my taskbar. 

Full details on all of the Magnifier settings are on the Microsoft website.  

Update: As I noted in the comment, the Magnifier interferes with the reverse colour mouse cursor that I prefer to use. It turns out that starting the app manually from the task bar will also cause this to happen, though it may not happen immediately. So I am not going to use the app for now. I may take another look at this in the New Year to see if I can find a permanent solution, because it is a handy tool. 

Featured Links -- December 15, 2024

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

Birds on ice

The best science images of 2024 — Nature’s picks. "A breathtaking total eclipse, courageous penguins, volcanic smoke rings and more." There are some truly incredible images here. Best viewed on a large computer monitor. 

Google Timeline location purge causes collateral damage. "Privacy measure leaves some mourning lost memories." If you rely on Timeline data more than three months old, you should read this.

Miranda’s Last Gift (gift link). "When our daughter died suddenly, she left us with grief, memories—and Ringo." A beautiful and moving tribute by David Frum to his late daughter, and her dog. 

Debunking Every Myth You Hear Against Universal Healthcare. "Whether you are politically left or right, you should want Universal Healthcare as a human right—here are the receipts on why."

Powerful solar storms are a nightmare for farmers. 'Our tractors acted like they were demon possessed'. "When the sun's fury disrupts high-tech farming, precision turns to chaos." It does make me wonder if the universe really is out to get us. 

Alena Tensor—a new hope for unification in physics. "Our new article published in Physica Scripta brings new hope that such a theory exists. It demonstrates that the use of a certain mathematical object called Alena Tensor reconciles various physical theories, including general relativity, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics and continuum mechanics. Will this finally allow scientists to unify descriptions used in physics?" Some highly speculative new physics theorizing. 

Refinement of post-COVID condition core symptoms, subtypes, determinants, and health impacts: a cohort study integrating real-world data and patient-reported outcomes. "PCC can be categorized into four distinct subtypes based on ten core symptoms. These subtypes appeared to share a majority of pathogen and host-related risk factors, but their impact on health varied markedly by subtype. Our findings could help refine current guidelines for precise PCC diagnosis and progression, enhance the identification of PCC subgroups for targeted research, and inform evidence-based policy making to tackle this new and debilitating condition."

The latest in poker cheats: Tiny cameras that can see cards as they’re dealt. ""Several recent schemes were uncovered, so should players everywhere be concerned?" Only if you're playing $10,000 buy-in poker. 

Battery prices continue to drop, lowering the cost of electric vehicles. "The price of lithium-ion batteries in China has decreased by 51 percent in the past year. Lower battery prices make electric vehicles cheaper than fossil fuel cars in many segments, and large-scale battery solutions in energy systems become more profitable."

Photo of the Week - December 15, 2024

Here's a seasonal picture for the week. We have had a very mild run up to winter so with only a dusting of snow and temperatures several degrees above normal. That hasn't stopped people from setting up displays for Christmas. I'll have to come by at night to see if they light it up. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Getting ready for Christmas

 

Saturday Sounds - Kensington Market - Avenue Road - Aardvark - Live

The Kensington Market were a Toronto band that released two superb albums in the late 1960s. From Wikipedia: 

Named after a downtown Toronto neighbourhood, it was known for 'gentle, lyrical, rock music', masterful musicianship, and for being was one of the first Canadian rock bands to develop a style independent of US and British models

Their music is somewhat psychedelic, guitar-driven rock with great vocals. The group had middling success but lack of record company promotion and bad lifestyle choices shut down their career after the second album. 

The albums are long out of print but Spotify has them and they are most definitely worth a listen. 

I saw them perform twice, once in Sault Ste. Marie in 1968 or thereabouts, and at a reunion gig in Hugh's Room in Toronto in 2010. Much to my surprise, the Hugh's Room gig that I attended and a previous one were recorded and are up on the band's YouTube channel. I'm including a few of those videos here as well. 

Is the Atlantic Circulation Collapsing?

I've posted here several times about the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (which includes the Gulf Stream), a system of currents that is responsible for (among many other things) moderating Europe's climate. There have been reports over the last decade that it may be slowing down or even collapsing, which would have devastating effects on the world's climate.

The excellent Eye on the Storm blog on the Yale Climate Connection site has just published a two-part article about the AMOC. You may have seen some sensationalist articles in the mainstream press saying that it's collapsing and we're all doomed. If you want to find out what we really know about the AMOC, its current state, and what might happen in the future, then read these articles. This is topflight science journalism. 

• Atlantic circulation collapse? New clues on the fate of a crucial conveyor belt. "In part one, we looked at observations from the North Atlantic that suggest a gradual weakening in AMOC strength over the last few decades, but only a marginally significant drop over the past 40 years of AMOC monitoring, including the largest near-surface component, the Gulf Stream."
• How much should you worry about a collapse of the Atlantic conveyor belt? "It’s not yet game over for the AMOC. As we discussed in part one of this post, the actual observations of 3D AMOC flow through the North Atlantic are still too brief to separate natural variations from long-term trends. And a modest decrease observed over the last 40 years has just been revised in an even more modest direction. ... As for now, we’re left with a dystopian, world-changing possibility – but one that’s still shrouded by enough observational and methodological uncertainty to make the answer to “When will it happen?” both less concrete and more worrisome than we’d like."
• 
  

Featured Links - December 9, 2024

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

TGull on a post

• The Grateful Dead ran this madcap country through their ‘fun machine’. "The long, strange trip — drugs, jams, drama and death — now brings the band to the Kennedy Center Honors."
• Stunning New Titanic 3D Scans Show Shipwreck In Unbelievable Detail. "It's so detailed you can even see the serial number on the Titanic's propeller blade."
• Giant Underground ‘Batteries’ Are Shaping the Future of Renewable Energy Storage. "We're wasting too much of the clean energy we generate. Reservoirs and caverns can store excess solar and wind power."
• This Is What the Giant Tonga Eruption Sounded Like. "A crowdsourced survey reveals how the sounds of the explosive event travelled around the world, and showcase the importance of fast-acting researchers."
• Exotic New Superconductors Delight and Confound. "Three new species of superconductivity were spotted this year, illustrating the myriad ways electrons can join together to form a frictionless quantum soup."
• H5N1 bird flu just one small mutation away from being a threat to humans, California researchers say. "California researchers say the world may be just one genetic tweak away from human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus — a worrisome mutation that could open the door to widespread human infections and possibly even a pandemic, according to some experts."
• R.I.P Trent. George R. R. Martin's obituary for Trent Zelazny, writer and son of writer Roger Zelazny.
• After critics decry Orion heat shield decision, NASA reviewer says agency is correct. "If this isn’t raising red flags out there, I don’t know what will." I will be very surprised if the new US administration doesn't kill the SLS, the Lunar Gateway, and possibly the Artemis program. 
• The Distinction Between Imaginary Science and Magic. This is an excerpt from SF author Ted Chiang's speech at American Humanist Association’s 83rd Annual Conference. 

Photo of the Week - December 8, 2024

This week's photo is of swans on the bay, taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

Swans on the bay

Saturday Sounds - The Searchers - The Searchers and Love's Melodies

The Searchers are a British Merseybeat group who had a several hits, including  "Needles and Pins" and "Love Potion Number 9", in the 1960s. I saw them in the later 1970s, when they were on a comeback tour, and quite enjoyed them. Their 1979 album, The Searchers, is a classic example of guitar-driven, melodic British pop. It's still quite listenable, as is the 1980 follow-up, Love's Melodies. 

We're Toast 55

This post is a collection of links that support my increasingly strong feeling that the human race (or at least our technological civilization) is doomed. (And based on the results of last month's US election, probably sooner than I originally thought). It is part of an ongoing series of posts.

‘Depressing’ photo of suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne enrages Aussies. "A “depressing” photo of a mega housing estate just an hour outside of Melbourne’s CBD has enraged Aussies and left experts fuming." If they find that depressing, they should never try flying into Toronto's Pearson airport.

The Imminence of the Destruction of the Space Program. "New calculations put the date much closer than we should be comfortable with." The consquences of the Kessler Syndrome would be massive and far reaching, given our reliance on satellite technology (global communications and GPS location, to name just two)..

Persistence of spike protein at the skull-meninges-brain axis may contribute to the neurological sequelae of COVID-19. In other words, COVID-19 can damage your brain. 

Unexplained Heat Wave ‘Hotspots’ Are Popping Up Across the Globe. "The large and unexpected margins by which recent regional-scale extremes have broken earlier records have raised questions about the degree to which climate models can provide adequate estimates of relations between global mean temperature changes and regional climate risks."

Climate change is spoiling food faster, making hundreds of millions of people sick around the world. "The World Health Organization estimates 600 million people a year already suffer from foodborne illnesses."

Antarctic researchers warn of possible 'catastrophic' sea level rise within our lifetime in group statement. "Antarctica and the Southern Ocean have been undergoing rapid and extreme changes in recent years, including unprecedented heatwaves and record-low sea ice levels. Over the past week, more than 450 researchers gathered in Hobart for the inaugural Australian Antarctic Research Conference — the first such event in more than a decade."

‘Climate bomb’ warning over $200bn wave of new gas projects. "New liquefied natural gas projects could produce 10 gigatonnes of emissions by the end of the decade, close to the annual emissions of all coal plants."

Movie and TV Reviews - November 2024

Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in November. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. 

Movies

• Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version): I am not particularly a fan of Swift's music but I am impressed by her performance and showmanship in this concert film. (Disney+)
• Queen Rocks Montreal: This 1981 concert was released as an IMAX movie. I'm not sure that it would be more impressive on an IMAX screen though it might benefit from their sound system. If you like Queen, you'll like it but I don't think it would make anyone a new fan. 
• The Beach Boys: A documentary covering the long career of the Beach Boys. I thought it was a bit superficial. 
• Deadpool and Wolverine: We gave up on this after about 40 minutes. 'Nuff said. 
• Stargate: The Ark of Truth. A movie culled from a later season of the original Stargate TV series. If you like Stargate (which I do) you'll probably enjoy this but it won't make any new fans. (Prime)

TV Shows

• Whistable Pearl (season 3): This cozy mystery set in a sea-side English town continues. 
• Scrublands: A reporter comes to a small Australian town to do a follow-up story on a mass murder but gets much more than he bargained for. This one was quite good.
• Ellis: A series about a detective inspector who get sent to troubled police department to clean things up. Another good one. 
• Bad Sisters (season 1): A very dark comedy about a family of Irish sisters who try to murder an abusive husband. One of Apple's better series. 
• Cross: Yet another Michael Connolly adaptation. It started out well but got too complex and I didn't like the super-psycho villain trope. (Amazon Prime)
• Red Queen: A Spanish thriller about the smartest woman in the world taking on a shadowy underground conspiracy. It's a bit surrealistic in places, and maybe an episode or two too long, but we watched it all the way through. 
• Antiques Road Trip (season 5) The antique hunters' trips through the UK continue. 
• Madam Blanc: A widow travels to France to get details about her husband's accidental death and gets more than she bargained for. Another cozy mystery. (Acorn TV)

Featured Links - December 2, 2024

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

Creepy Christmas yard ornaments

• Populism, freedom, and democracy in Alberta (and beyond). Here's a very good article about populism in the context of Alberta's politics. It has direct relevance to what's happening here in Ontario as well, not to mention the US.
• A Personal Pre-Pandemic Plan. "5 things you can do today to prepare for a possibility of seeing another pandemic sometime in the reasonably near future."
• Trumpomuskovia. From historian Timothy Snyder, "four scenarios for Trumpomuskovia, the musko-trumpified America that is already upon us." From a Canadian perspective, his second scenario is especially interesting.
• The Redbox Removal Team. "Redbox left 24,000 abandoned DVD rental kiosks. "The unceremonious end of Redbox is a reminder of how much stuff we make and buy, and how, when companies fail to plan for end-of-life or go out of business, they often leave a bunch of devices that suddenly become e-waste behind."
• Libraries can help end the culture wars. That’s why they’re under fire (gift link). "Nothing threatens authoritarianism like a quiet place to explore knowledge." Opinion piece by Annalee Newitz, author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.
• Kennedy’s Inheritance: How Addiction and Trauma Shaped a Turbulent Life (gift link). Donald Trump’s pick to be health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reached a pinnacle of power after a life of fame and addictions and a career intertwined with conspiracy theories.
• TV In 2024. "It’s probably part of your life too. What happened was, we moved to a new place and it had a room set up for a huge TV, so I was left with no choice but to get one. Which got me thinking about TV in general and naturally it spilled over here into the blog. There is good and bad news."
• Notre Dame is a pipeline for Supreme Court clerks, magnet for justices. (gift link) "Growing ties between Notre Dame law school and the Supreme Court show the appeal of getting out of D.C. and of an environment that welcomes conservative views."

 

Photo of the Week - December 1, 2024

This week's photo is of a neighbour's maple tree that overshadows our backyard. All of the leaves have finally fallen and I find myself fascinated by the fractal patterns of the branches reaching for sunlight. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. I was tempted to dump it into Photoshop to remove the cable and power lines but I'm too lazy. 

Reach for the sky