Since I mentioned it three weeks ago, the discussion about the possible lab origin of SARS-COV2 has taken off and the subject has moved from "purportedly racist conspiracy theory" into the middle of the Overton window, no the least via this Letter in Science.

First off, I never understood how the lab leak was supposed to be more racist than a wet market origin. The latter can easily be understood as calling Chinese "filthy bat eaters", no? In any case, this is a fine example of how well-intentioned policing of opinions can get in the way of finding the truth.

And the truth is hugely important in this case! Because even though the origin might not be the most important factor for the response to the pandemic once it started, it matters a great deal about how we go about preventing the next one.

A disinterested investigation is what we should want but there is so much prestige at stake, for the CCP as well as the scientists and funding agencies involved, that it is difficult to go beyond preformed opinions.

Lab leak turning out to be true could shake things up, not in a good way:

Should it turn out that scientists and experts and NGOs, etc. are villains rather than heroes of this story, we may very well see the expert-worshiping values of modern liberalism go up in a fireball of public anger.

Hopefully though, we would instead get our act together and figure out how to properly handle bio-risk.

It's not been going well with project push-up. The big gap in May is when I planted forest instead, which was tiring quite enough for arms and shoulders. And since then, well, no real excuse but more than three sets a day just don't seem to happen.

• Why did it take so long to invent this?
• A mash-up that never fails to crack me up: DJ Schmolli - In The Mood For Some Killing
• That Time Hitler’s Girlfriend Visited Iceland and the British Invaded
• Stuart Ritchie reviews Daniel Kahneman's new book
• Myths and tips about cast iron skillets
• Why Civilization is older than we thought. Early human evolution and history is fascinating and Göbekli Tepe would be high on my list, if I ever started travelling again.
• Animated population pyramid of Sweden

Holy shit! I just realized that the Kurgan in Highlander is played by the same actor as the asshole sergeant in Starship Troopers! Clancy Brown.

The Critical Drinker does a good job in his videos of explaining why the latter film is great satire and why Highlander does not need a remake.

The eggs that the stink bug (Swedish bärfis, which translates to "berry fart") laid under our new parasol literally* five minutes after I put it up.

* and I mean literally, not figuratively, as has become the more common meaning of the word. Is there a new word for literally literally?

This year's veggie garden is taking shape. Note the pole for birds of prey to sit on, which we raised in the hope for them to eat the voles that invaded last year.

Source

Interesting that, when it comes to meat eating habits, Swedes are more similar to the French than Germans or Brits. And that China has already "caught up".

I have recently encountered the Wolfram Physics Project a few times, for example this podcast.

The basic idea, if I dare re-state it without any deep understanding, is that the universe is computation at the fundamental level and the laws of nature that we have figured out are emergent pockets of computational reducibility. In general though, the underlying rules are being executed a very large number of times in a computationallly irreducible way, without any shortcuts. Particles and such are patterns in the "grid", analogous to a glider in Conway's Game of Life.

I find this surprisingly non-crazy, especially if, as Wolfram and collaborators claim, much of physics naturally arises in that framework. But what do I know‽ Theoretical/fundamental physics is not exactly my strong suit, and as always it needs to be judged on whether or not it provides better explanations and predictions than competing theories.

If you enjoy getting your mind tickled by abstract questions like How fundamental are numbers?, there are worse places to go than the world of Stephen Wolfram.

I try to take note when I encounter fun new words. Today: persnickety, which means fussy, overly obsessed about details, snobbish.

Not so long ago: recalcitrant, meaning subbornly defiant of authority.

• Can you distinguish real paper titles and abstracts from computer-generated ones?
• Watch someone open and taste a 40-year-old Berliner Weisse.
• Remastered pictures of Earth from the Apollo missions.
• How tech companies devolve into zombies, text or video. Similarities to organizations like universities are obvious.
• Hilarious review of Arabian Nights.
• Bluetit live nest cam.