2023-02-11

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“Open source” seeds loosen Big Ag’s grip on farmers | Hacker News
Pretty much how it was explained to me in the 70s: Study: Mexican jumping beans use random walk strategy to find shade
The rise of the TikTok Mengele - by Mary Harrington

It’s also a development with implications for the conversation about “right wing art” - its nature, modes, aesthetics and patrons - currently afoot in many quarters. In particular: where does such artistic endeavour stand, in relation to an emerging aesthetics of radically plastic flesh? The eugenicist push, after all, appears to be coming not from the Right but from a tech-enamoured progressive mainstream, where radical physical malleability is increasingly normalised as self-actualisation or mass entertainment. And in the wake of this paradigm shift, any amount of human “upgrading” becomes not just possible but aspirational or even morally necessary. If this is the case, then what, if any, should the dissident response be?
Classic heart-shaped Valentine's chocolate boxes often contain precious few candies - The Washington Post

Married into Jewish community – I am content to be the outsider in my own family
A Black Professor Trapped in Anti-Racist Hell
Inside the Catholic civil war - UnHerd

Pope Francis’s pet project, a forthcoming “Synod on Synodality” whose agenda has been dictated by liberal Catholics who support women’s ordination and are obsessed with placating the LGBT+ lobby. Pell said the synod was shaping up to be a “toxic nightmare” and poured scorn on the working document’s “neo-Marxist jargon”.

Pentagon Downed Object over Alaska, Officials Say Archive link

The Pentagon downed an unidentified object over Alaska on Friday at the order of President Biden, according to U.S. officials. Mr. Kirby said the object was traveling at 40,000 feet. He said officials were describing it as an object because that was the best description they had of it. A recovery effort on the debris will be made, Mr. Kirby said. He said the object was “roughly the size of a small car” — much smaller than the spy balloon that had a payload the size of multiple buses.
US developed method to track China’s spy balloon fleet within last year
New facts about the game theory of balloons

China’s effort has been underway for more than a decade. According to a declassified intelligence report issued Thursday by the State Department, it involves a “fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations” that have flown over 40 countries on five continents.
Mysterious Green Laser Beams over Hawaii Came from Chinese Satellite