Links 3 March 2023

Your introduction to a wonderful blog called City of Dust, which chronicles the author's explorations of abandoned and nearly abandoned places, is this post on an abandoned honky tonk in Hamburg, South Carolina, a place with a very disturbing past.

Matt Yglesias considers the theory that young people are depressed because they are depressing each other with doom-laden narratives about the world, that is, our depression is a "contagion" spreading through the young population. Depression is much more common among liberals, and youthful leftism is all about how bad things are. On the other hand depression is also rising among young conservatives, but then when you think about it, contemporary conservatism isn't very optimistic either. The biggest question of the moment is, to me, why our communal mood is so bad.

Scott Siskind argues against Ice Age civilizations, which is the correct position, but still puzzling to me as an archaeologist. We fight about a million things but the possibility of Ice Age civilizations is not one of them; there is no professional debate about this at all, not even any interest in the question, just, sorry, no, I don't have time to list the million reasons why not. It's a striking gap between what interests professionals and what interests everyone else.

After a wargame showed that autonomous drone swarms could have a decisive effect in a war with China over Taiwan, DARPA and the rest of the US military-industrial complex are moving ahead rapidly with this technology. The program is called AMASS, Autonomous Multi-Domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms.

Statistics on blockbuster drugs.

Walking Britain's Old Corpse Roads, which this article says were built to connect remote settlements to the parish churches where they were supposed to bury their dead.

At the NY Times, Ezra Klein argues that the real danger of AI is that as it gets better it will learn to manipulate us with advertisements or arguments perfectly calibrated to our own personalities, which could be horribly misused by corporations, governments, or political factions. I think this is another branch of the fear so common in our time, that other people have dumb opinions and are easily manipulated.

And also about the Times, somebody who does word counts finds that their use of woke terminology has peaked and is declining.

Kevin Drum makes the case that things are good in America, and that the one bad thing that really seems to be increasing is baseless fear.

In Lebanon, people are robbing banks to get at their own savings, because the banks have imposed strict limits on withdrawals to avoid collapse amidst the country's financial meltdown.

Can Arizona keep growing despite its water shortage? Well, yes, they can find water for data centers and homes as long as they deny it to somebody else. Like, say, the farmers who use 70% of the state's water. Look for this fight to fester for years.

Can we drill for geologic hydrogen like we drill for natural gas, and use it for power? Some scientists think so. (NY Times, summary article, abstract of a recent, very optimistic scientific paper)

Hispanic Democrats and anti-woke Republicans come together to fight the word "Latinx", the Hispanics because they feel it is a white, English-sounding word being imposed on them from the outside, Republicans because it sounds woke. (NY Times)

Whiskey fungus – Baudoinia compniacensis –grows near bakeries and distilleries around the world, feeding on ethanol vapors. It is so bad around the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee, where people say their houses are coated with black mold, that locals filed a lawsuit against expanding the plant.

Microsoft unveils AI that can analyze images and answer questions about them.

Recent data suggests that sanctions and the war have not hurt the Russian economy to nearly the extent that seemed likely six months ago; right now the IMF is predicting that the Russian economy will grow this year. Which I would say is another sign pointing toward stalemate.

Ukraine Links

Damaged and abandoned Russian vehicles in a minefield near Vuhledar.

A note on the first anniversary of the Battle of Bucha, which stopped the advance of Russian air assault forces toward Kyiv.

Jack Watling of "War on the Rocks" reflects on a year of war in Ukraine.

New Russian propaganda video circulating online depicts Volgograd's Motherland Calls monument battling and then beheading the Statue of Liberty.

There is lots of talk about a Ukrainian spring offensive, after the mud dries. My feeling is that this is Ukraine's last real chance to meaningfully alter the lines of control before battle fatigue and stalemate set it, and I am not optimistic.