An unexploded Civil War artillery shell was just found on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, the same area where I did an archaeological project in 2021. I am torn between being glad we didn't stumble onto it and worried that we somehow missed it.
Kevin Drum thinks people should stop obsessing about replacing all lead water pipes, which is not realistic and not necessary, and move to a broad-based approach that uses testing to establish where the threats actually are and then focuses remediation on those threats.
Study finds that the coastal route from Asia to North America, along the southern shore of the Bering Sea land bridge, was only passable within two time periods: 24,500 to 22,000 years ago, and 16,400 to 14,800 years ago. The coastal route has been offered as an explanation of how people got to the Americans before the big thaw opened up the inland route around 15,000 years ago. If the new finding holds up, that would be hard on theories that have people in North America 25,000 to 50,000 years ago.
Who says Congress can't get anything done? The 2023 omnibus appropriations bill required that the FDA lift its restriction on how many patients a doctor could treat with suboxone (buprenorphine), and now the FDA has done it, which will allow thousands more Americans to get treatment for opiate addiction. Of course some sleazy doctors will abuse this, but trade-offs are part of life, and I think drug addicts need more help. Plus, suboxone isn't very dangerous or much fun, so the potential for abuse is limited. I imagine that Congress was able to do this because so many legislators have relatives struggling with opiate addiction – twenty, at least, have said this publicly – making it possible to overcome the inevitable inertia.
An AI that understands and analyzes images.
Mitt Romney stands tall again, confronts George Santos at the SOTU, tells him to resign, later calls him a "sick puppy." Politics looks so much better when people have principles.
Speaking of the SOTU, Republicans shouting from the crowd failed to rattle Biden, about which one of his former campaign managers said, "There are some good things about doing something for fifty years." (NY Times) I am impressed by the way some performers who have been on stage for years or decades can become completely comfortable there, apparently as comfortable as I am in my living room. Likewise, even great athletes often stumble the first time they compete for a big league championship, whereas some veterans can get so used to that level of pressure that it no longer bothers them at all (Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Lionel Messi).
Via G in the comments, fabulous 16-minute interview with David Bowie in 1999. "The potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. . . . I think we're on the cusp of something exhilirating and terrifying." Also interesting on why he assumed different personas over the years.
Are things finally looking up in Somalia?
Cars in the style of famous architects.
Amazing photographs of fungi by Max Mudie.
Photos and video of a waterfall being blown back upward.
The improvised armored vehicles used by the Islamic State in the battle for Mosul.
Major find of ancient Native American artifacts in Miami, being excavated to make way for condominium development, makes the news because they are being mum about what has been found and some people think major discoveries are being swept under the rug so development can go ahead.
The Board of Governors at the University of North Carolina is trying to establish what sounds like a school of conservative studies, called the "School of Civic Life and Leadership," to achieve "ideological balance." Some of the faculty, who were not consulted and heard about this on the news, are outraged. But given how many left-wing professors believe their mission is to revolutionize society – "an engine for social change" is how one such professor described his idea of a university to me – I don't see what grounds they have to complain when their political opponents fight back.
Adam Tooze argues that the root of Iran's recent protests is that they have a European-style demography, with low birth rates and an educated female population, under an extremely conservative government. Says that in the 1990s and early 2000s Iran experienced the most rapid fall in the birth rate ever measured. Looking at the data Tooze presents, it does seem like a bad sign for any country when the unemployment for college-educated people aged 25-34 is 23% for men and 35% for women, and that this is higher than the rate for less educated people.
According to Musa al-Gharbi, wokeism in the US is winding down. (Using actual counts of incidents like firings, not just vibe.)
Do students learn better from a teacher of the same race? Sometimes, yes.
Richard Hanania is not so much afraid of superintelligent AI because he is not sure being infinitely smart would be much of an advantage: "To me, the biggest problem with the doomerist position is that it assumes that there aren’t seriously diminishing returns to intelligence."
Does Helion Energy, a private company based in Everett, Washington, have a revolutionary fusion technology that will produce power commercially within a decade? Beats me, but some people say so. Wikipedia, Helion webs site, enthusiastic 30-minute video, brief page at an energy think tank, very negative 7-minute video. I'm trying to keep an open mind about fusion but I still feel pretty strongly that I will never see it.
Ukraine Links
Russian propagandist on state television says Russia should be independent, cutting itself off from the world if necessary, like North Korea.
LPR volunteer Murz seems to be sick of the war, complains about the massive loss of life in Russia's grinding offensive toward Bakhmut.
Drone video shows numerous losses of Russian armor in a recent assault on Vuhledar. And a count from Ukraine Weapons Tracker, which tabulates 31 lost tanks and IFVs. These are supposed to be from the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade, which when the war started was considered an elite formation.
Girkin says Russia had better not try another big offensive with its current force, because it would end worse than the attack on Kyiv. Also interesting on Bakhmut.
Two-minute drone video showing Ukrainian infantry, supported by an IFV, attacking Russian positions in Bakhmut.
Map from February 8 showing that the situation in Bakhmut is getting increasingly bad for Ukraine.
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