tingilinde

visual effects workers vote to unionize

I'm surprised it's taken so long.

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Ever since production of the first Star Wars movies in the 1970s, the visual effects industry has largely been non-unionized. But now for the first time, a group of 50 visual effects workers at Marvel Studios in LA, New York and Atlanta have signed authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board. They hope to become part of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE.

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a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

a nice look back on the discovery of the cosmic microwave background

The Big Bang and Holmdel, NJ  Some nice bits from Bob Wilson.

and, of course the pigeon story:

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The intrusive noise corresponded to a temperature of about 3.5 kelvin, barely yet clearly above the absolute zero that they had expected from empty space. It was present no matter in what direction they pointed the antenna. Try as they might, they could not get rid of the extra heat.

“And we, of course, were worried — ‘what’s wrong with this system?’” Dr. Wilson said.

On the long list of potential wrongs were two pigeons that had roosted in the narrow end of the antenna and the “white dielectric material,” as Dr. Penzias called it, that they had left behind. “And they had decorated it the way they decorate various statues,” Dr. Wilson said.

The pigeons were sent away. “A couple of days later, they were right back,” Dr. Wilson said. A more permanent eviction was arranged. But even after cleaning the telescope, the buzz remained, eluding all explanation for nearly a

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The view from Princeton is given in James Peebles Nobel Prize lecture.  It's mostly on the development of physical cosmology, but this is a key component. 

And now, thanks to the JWST, there may be dramatic new discoveries ahead!

 

 

tenochtitlan

What the city might have looked like before the conquest.  A 3d reconstruction.

 

 

on elon

Apropos of nothing, if you complain that a group of Jews who fight against antisemitism are responsible for destroying the value of your company, you are antisemitic.

 

unusual airbnbs

In unusual places too.

a tip of the hat to Kevin

 

 

arrogance and inertia in the us navy

Spending boatloads of money while ignoring some real threats that need to be addressed.

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Bobbing in a small bay off the Persian Gulf was a collection of tiny unmanned vessels, prototypes for the kind of cheaper, easier-to-build and more mobile force that some officers and analysts of naval warfare said was already helping to contain Iran and could be essential to fighting a war in the Pacific.

Operating on a budget that was less than the cost of fuel for one of the Navy’s big ships, Navy personnel and contractors had pieced together drone boats, unmanned submersible vessels and aerial vehicles capable of monitoring and intercepting threats over hundreds of miles of the Persian Gulf, like Iranian fast boats looking to hijack oil tankers.

Now they are pleading for more money to help build on what they have learned.

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empty offices → housing

There's a housing shortage crises in the US as well as something of a collapse in occupied office space. Turning offices into apartments would seem to be a disaster - except it's hard.  99% Invisible has an episode on the challenges as well as a few solutions.  The podcast (player is on the bottom of the page) as well as some links with supporting text and photos.

 

public engagement in science and technology

A nice piece by Andrew Maynard

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This is not a new idea. For decades now researchers have been studying and writing about the importance of public engagement in ensuring science and technology do more good than harm. (Here, it’s worth calling out Brian Wynn’s seminal 1995 article “May the Sheep Safely Gaze? …” as an example of just how long scholars and others have been studying this). Yet there remains deep resistance to listening to and learning from diverse communities and members of the public as new ideas lead to new research, development, and products.

Even as recently as a few months ago this was reflected in conversations around getting AI right, with claims that the technology is simply too complicated for non-experts to understand!

And yet, pushback against the importance of public engagement demonstrates a stunning lack of understanding around how to ensure science and technology serve people in a democratic society, and a very real risks of hubristically ignoring the very communities many scientists and technologists claim they are working to help.

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Apparently PCAST will weigh in.. 

a tip of the hat to Andy

for labor day

That first real job scooping ice cream

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Once my head was in, I used one arm to brace myself on the edge of the freezer while, with the other arm, I gathered enough strength to violently jam the metal scoop into the vat of ice cream. The violent jamming was important. If I didn’t do it just right, go at it with enough force, I could find myself skimming right over the ice cream’s surface. That was always an issue. When I had only one foot on the floor, barely balancing on my toes, that skim would send me flying forward, at which point self-preservation kicked in. I’d toss aside the scoop and—eyes closed, slightly sickened by what was to come—put out my hands to cushion the fall.

I always had a soft landing. One hand in the Cookies ’n Cream. One hand in the Rocky Road. Submerged in ice cream up to my elbows.

That’s the curse of the job—ice cream everywhere. My uniform’s pink-brown-and-white striped shirt was crisp, cheerful, but by the end of each shift it was gummy and streaked with chocolate and pistachio and sorbet and mint chip. The clear plastic gloves didn’t help. Ice cream ran up and down my arms; it slipped inside the gloves; it stuck in the crevices behind my knees. You have not fully lived on this earth until you have tried to wash Pink Bubblegum ice cream out of your cornrows.

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those australian cardboard drones

Low cost and apparently effective.  My understanding is they're a fiberboard with a waterproof and anti-radar coatings.