Randoms Mid February

Killer Shrews and Walter Mitty

Yep, another links roundup, sipping at the firehose of information and distraction so as to keep our minds off the clusterpluck that is the new normal. Take your slippers off. Travel the world. While you can.

YouTube Vagabond: Dashcam Roadshow 🚘

Walter Mitty at the wheel: A new and pleasant diversion for me whilst severely cabin-bound

• Honestly, while these hour-or-more-long dashcam journeys are entertaining and relaxing, my inner botanist and geologist is saying "Wait! Go back. What were those lavender spikes in the fencerows; and how old are those different rock slides on that mountainside in Switzerland; and is this valley the result of the last Ice Age? Where do these people get groceries anyway?

• Try one or two. I subscribed to the "channel" and listen to music while watching (as there is no sound but the hum of the wheels of the dashcam vehicle.)

The two ISMS: Ideal and Real 👻

Without wading far into the weeds, visit the Quantum Physics Lady via the link. I have tended all along towards an "idealist" understanding of reality. So, too, do not a few science and philosophy types.

• Matter matters, but is not the whole story in this chicken-and-egg debate. What is consciousness and when and where did it appear in the cosmos?

• Sir James Jeans wrote: “The stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter… we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.”

Every Time you See Stars 🎇

New-ish evidence suggest that concussive events trigger changes to inactive viruses like herpes and varicella zoster.

• These ramped up viruses for chicken pox and shingles then cause inflammation and neuron damage like that seen in ALZ.

• So next time you watch a football game (or soccer or basketball for that matter) wince with even more OUCH! realizing this concussive potential for sports-acquired Future Dementia.

The Coming AI Oligarch 💀

Now that tech rules the future from inside the halls of power, why ever give it up?

• A Presidential Bot would be "a real-time video head trained on his news conferences and everything he has ever tweeted"

• And only PEOPLE are restricted to two terms. So...

Taming the Shrew 🐁

This headline caught my attention. It's probably nothing, but in case you needed a new thing for your midnight ruminations:

• 🦠 Researchers from the University of Queensland discovered a new virus, named Camp Hill virus, in shrews in Alabama. Yep.

• Australia? Shrews? Camp Hill? I drove through the intersection known as Camp Hill to and from Birmingham most weekends for my freshman year at Auburn. (War Eagle btw, with a strong win vs ‘Bama yesterday.)

• "The newly-named Camp Hill virus is part of the henipavirus family, which also includes the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses, which rank among the World Health Organization's biggest pandemic threats and kill up to 70 percent of people they infect."

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My work is done here. And yes, I do have a number of real posts in mind, living in their own bulleted lists for future unpacking and sharing.

I attended my first on-campus event at the University of Missouri in Columbia yesterday. Gleanings from that hour will become part of the conversation closer to Earth Day. The wheels are spinning, and there is a wee bit of traction again. It has been a long, long year. I will eventually explain.