Based on this book review, "Guns, Germs and Steel" author Jared Diamond appears to be running on brand fumes:

[url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/books/review/upheaval-jared-diamond.html]What to Do When You’re a Country in Crisis[/url] - The New York Times

Perhaps Diamond failed to interview enough "super resilient" people?

And speaking of bad science:

[url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/the-last-mortals-immortality/]The Last Mortals[/url] | Times Literary Supplement: [i]Regina Rini considers why we are especially unfortunate to die, when our near-descendants could be immortal[/i]
[quote]Medical science has overturned common sense about what counts as a “normal” human lifespan. An average American born in 1900 could expect to live only forty-seven years. If that American did make it to 1950, they saw babies born with a life expectancy of sixty-eight years – a 45 per cent lengthening of life in only two generations. And that baby born in 1950 is probably still around today, to witness newborns who can reasonably expect to reach the age of eighty.[/quote]
Misleadingly conflates "life expectancy at birth" to make an argument about yuuge advances in terms of extreme-lifespan extension. From the NCBI book [url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220806/]Patterns of Childhood Death In America[/url] we glean the following key statistic: “In 1900, 30 percent of all deaths in the United States occurred in children less than 5 years of age compared to just 1.4 percent in 1999.” So if expected lifespan at birth in 1900 was 47 years, let’s do the math and pull out the “expected lifespan if you made it to your 5th birthday”, call it X. Assume for simplicity – and this being off by a year or so will not affect the final result much – that in 1900, 30% of newborns died at age 2.5 years, then:

0.3*2.5 + 0.7*X = 47, giving X = (47 – 0.75)/0.7 = 66 years, which is still appreciably shorter than the current value of just under 80 years (note that the latter is actually going down thanks to the stunning success of 4 decades of neoliberal economic policy), but not leaps-and-bounds shorter. But "From 1900 to roughly 2000 we managed to extend expected lifespan for those surviving into adulthood by about a decade" is not terribly clickbaity and tech-futurist-saleable, is it? But understating the expected lifespan the way most people think about it in the context of growing old by a full 2 decades, that is an egregious mis-use of statistics.

A reader [url=https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/05/links-5-21-19.html#comment-3154944]adds[/url]:
[quote]The scifi author Robert Heinlein had this idea through several of his novels. They were called the Howard families and they were financially encouraged to marry those with long-lived grandparents to marry each other and have children. By the 22nd century the Howard families had a life expectancy exceeding 150 years. But they were not envied. They were hated with a demented passion. Till they were uncovered, all people were equal in that they all died – even all those California techies trying to research immortality. They will die. Just ask Steve Jobs. But the Howard families had cheated death. They could invest and wait in things that no ordinary person could ever hope to live long enough to wait for. It nearly crashed the stock market. They were nearly slaughtered until they escaped the planet. But if a breed of immortals comes along by design, there will be no escape for them. And no government could hope to protect them. Heinlein said that the Jews have been mercilessly hounded over the centuries for merely claiming that they were God’s chosen people. Well, immortals would be the real deal. And people will want them dead.[/quote]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;517410]Based on this book review, "Guns, Germs and Steel" author Jared Diamond appears to be running on brand fumes:

[url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/books/review/upheaval-jared-diamond.html]What to Do When You’re a Country in Crisis[/url] - The New York Times

Perhaps Diamond failed to interview enough "super resilient" people?
<snip>[/QUOTE]
I recently saw (part of) an "NHK Special" series featuring Jared Diamond. He was lecturing to a bunch of young students. To me, it seemed profoundly lacking in substance. "Running on fumes" is a [i]great[/i] description.

I found an effusively favorable review of [u]Upheaval[/u], but I didn't get very far. In fact, I paused at the end of the first phrase (which is a complete sentence)

[i]Jared Diamond has won renown as a polymath of incredible versatility:[/i]

I mean, what other kind of polymath [i]is[/i] there? I found the additional phrasing to be excessive, unnecessary, superfluous, repetitious, [i]de trop[/i], and redundant.

But I soldiered on, and somehow got the rest of the way through the first sentence without falling asleep.

[i]a biologist, geographer, linguist and historian.[/i]

I leave it to the reader to judge whether this lives up to the billing.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;517426]I found an effusively favorable review of [u]Upheaval[/u], but I didn't get very far. In fact, I paused at the end of the first phrase (which is a complete sentence)

[i]Jared Diamond has won renown as a polymath of incredible versatility:[/i][/QUOTE]

That sounds like a book-jacket blurb which might've been written by renowned (snicker) author [url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html]Dan Brown[/url]:
[quote][i]The Da Vinci Code[/i] may well be the only novel ever written that begins with the word [i]renowned[/i]. Here is the paragraph with which the book opens. The scene (says a dateline under the chapter heading, 'Prologue') is the Louvre, late at night:
[i]
Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.
[/i]
I think what enabled the first word to tip me off that I was about to spend a number of hours in the company of one of the worst prose stylists in the history of literature was this. Putting curriculum vitae details into complex modifiers on proper names or definite descriptions is what you do in journalistic stories about deaths; you just don't do it in describing an event in a narrative.[/quote]

Silicon-Valley griftopin "disruption" comes to astronomy:

[url=https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-spark-fights/]SpaceX’s Starlink satellites spark fights between astronomy, spaceflight fans[/url] | Teslarati -- Naked Capitalism's Lambert Strether comments:
[quote]“As more levelheaded spaceflight fans and astronomers thankfully point out, we need to wait weeks – if not months or even years – to actually understand the potential impact [Low Earth Orbit (LEO)] megaconstellations might have on science and society.”

Translation: As usual, the crooks in Silicon Valley dump their product in a public space — the entire night sky, in this case — cash in, and expect others to bear the costs of coping with the “externalities” (see Uber, AirBnB, and of course the criminal enterprise that is Facebook). The tell here is that that Musk didn’t consult with astronomers when developing the business concept or the technology, any more than he consulted with experts on the ground in the Thai cave rescue before publicizing his half-baked mini-submarine concept. Ka-ching. And then of course there’s the radio spectrum:
[i]
And these will be emitting in Ka and Ku band by design – frequencies used by radio astronomers like me. There will never be a radio quiet zone for research ever again since these will always be in the Sky day or night. [url=https://twitter.com/TheNRAO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]@TheNRAO[/url]

-- Chelsea Sharon (@cesharon) [url=https://twitter.com/cesharon/status/1132457051584516097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]May 26, 2019[/url][/i][/quote]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;517906]Silicon-Valley griftopin "disruption" comes to astronomy:

[url=https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-spark-fights/]SpaceX’s Starlink satellites spark fights between astronomy, spaceflight fans[/url] | Teslarati -- Naked Capitalism's Lambert Strether comments:[/QUOTE]

Take a look at this.

[url]https://twitter.com/GirgisVictoria/status/1132535725377744896[/url]

[QUOTE=xilman;517939]Take a look at this.

[url]https://twitter.com/GirgisVictoria/status/1132535725377744896[/url][/QUOTE]
This reminds me of a term coined by astronomers in the late Nineteenth Century for asteroids: "Vermin of the skies."

[URL="https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-curse-of-genius"]The Curse of Genius[/URL]

[URL="https://www.fastcompany.com/90336549/the-creeping-threat-of-facial-recognition"]The Creeping Threat of Facial Recognition[/URL]

[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/science/math-physics-knitting-matsumoto.html"]‘Knitting Is Coding’ and Yarn Is Programmable in This Physics Lab[/URL]

[URL="https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/device-mimics-way-neurons-communicate"]A device that mimics the way neurons communicate[/URL]

[URL="https://brainworldmagazine.com/the-importance-of-play-an-interview-with-dr-jaak-panksepp/"]The Importance Of Play: An Interview with Dr. Jaak Panksepp[/URL]

[URL="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/05/clotilda-the-last-american-slave-ship-found-in-alabama/"]Last American slave ship is discovered in Alabama[/URL]

[URL="https://www.zmescience.com/science/plants-civil-war-bacteria-253653535/"]Medicinal plants used in the Civil War can stomp our modern antibiotic-resistant germs[/URL]

[URL="https://neurosciencenews.com/wearable-consume-brain-devices-14060/"]Examining ethical issues surrounding wearable brain devices marketed to consumers[/URL]

[URL="https://alum.mit.edu/slice/ticked-wrench-mit-engineer-fixed-his-place-tool-history"]“Ticked Off” by a Wrench, MIT Engineer Fixed His Place in Tool History[/URL]

[QUOTE=xilman;517939]Take a look at this.

[url]https://twitter.com/GirgisVictoria/status/1132535725377744896[/url][/QUOTE]

I note she also mentions having seen a spectacular ISS flyover ... I caught my first onesuch last Fall, purely by accident - an amazing sight. But no SiVal disrupto-weenie is planning to put thousands of ISSs up there!

[URL="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48369980"]The man who made Einstein world-famous[/URL]

[URL="https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/26860053/spelling-bee-ends-unprecedented-8-way-tie"]Spelling Bee ends in unprecedented 8-way tie[/URL]

[URL="http://www.openculture.com/2019/05/download-91000-historic-maps-from-the-massive-david-rumsey-map-collection.html"]Download 91,000 Historic Maps from the Massive David Rumsey Map Collection[/URL]

[URL="https://neurosciencenews.com/math-brain-objects-14110/"]Hands that see, eyes that feel? Brain study reveals the mathematics of identifying objects[/URL]

[URL="https://daily.jstor.org/a-mini-history-of-the-tiny-purse/"]A Mini History of the Tiny Purse[/URL]

[URL="https://newatlas.com/music-premature-baby-brain-development/59915/"]Incredible study shows music can help build the brains of premature babies[/URL]

[URL="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/20/724136568/how-the-brain-shapes-pain-and-links-ouch-with-emotion"]How The Brain Shapes Pain And Links Ouch With Emotion[/URL]

[URL="https://futurism.com/the-byte/jupiter-great-red-spot-dying"]JUPITER’S GREAT RED SPOT IS DYING[/URL]

[QUOTE=rogue;518539][URL="https://futurism.com/the-byte/jupiter-great-red-spot-dying"]JUPITER’S GREAT RED SPOT IS DYING[/URL][/QUOTE]About time too.

People have been speculating for centuries about why it is the only storm in the entire solar system which is so long-lived.

[QUOTE=rogue;518539][URL="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48369980"]The man who made Einstein world-famous[/URL]
[/QUOTE]


Good read.