Odd Lots
- Artemis II is home safe! And showed off a little by going farther from Earth than any of the Apollo missions. It was cislunar (orbit around both Earth and Moon) so that there was no chance of getting stuck in Lunar orbit due to possible failure of the spacecraft’s thrusters. No, their only problem was with the bathroom plumbing. I flashed on the scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which Dr. Heywood Floyd is shown reading the instructions for a zero-G toilet.
- I saw this too: Many big-name news outlets reporting on Artemis talking about “the dark side of the Moon.” There is a side we don’t see from Earth, but it gets as much light as the side we do see. This makes me glad I didn’t go into news journalism. (Yes, I considered it…50 years ago.)
- In the transition from Old English to Middle English, the language lost a fair number of pronouns, especially pronouns referring to two people only, not one, not more than two. Interesting story about how this came about over time, but we really don’t know why.
- New “smart” TV sets are very good at reporting on the habits of their users. Here’s a reasonable article on how to minimize that. Our big-screen flat TV is now 15 years old and isn’t especially smart. We’re probably going to keep it until it croaks.
- I don’t do social media as much as I used to—the novelty’s long since worn off—but there’s new research about how cutting down on social media time can help mental health in a variety of ways. I’ve got another Contra entry in the cooker about “slow dopamine” and how I experienced it, which is another factor in the social media takeover we see in modern life.
- Here’s an interesting piece about the history of SF, beginning with Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories and stopping at…the New Wave? Well, it’s supposedly about how the SF genre was born and raised. The New Wave faded away in the 1970s, though there are still some holdouts. Indie SF is now changing the shape of the game, and the author doesn’t mention the long, slow death-throes of print publishing.
- I miss Radio Shack, sure, but earlier today I was assembling a kit that uses two CR2032 coin cells, and one of the battery holders was defective. I shrugged, took a deep breath, and then ordered a bag of six from Amazon. They’ll be here tomorrow afternoon. The kit is cool and celebrates an anniversary that I’ll describe here in an upcoming Contra entry.
Posted in: Odd Lots.
Tagged: language · psychology · sf · space travel
Boy howdy, you touched on a subject that is near and dear to this old man. As much as I enjoyed seeing photographs from a number of favorite content creators, I deleted my IG account a couple-three years ago. I could not stop doomscrolling after FB took over the service. FB is also gone from my life.
Last year I put away my iPhone (and Apple Watch) and installed GrapheneOS on a Pixel to replace it. I have no social media apps on the Pixel. I do keep a copy of Ground News on it, but the remainder of the apps serve specific purposes, such a PoLo for POTA logging. I now wear a mechanical watch that doesn’t track me.
My old Sony Bravia was purchased in 2007. I’d like to upgrade, but don’t want to take on another tracker. I do use an Apple TV to access streaming services, so I know they are tracking me. The only way around that is to use physical media, which I might do.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to completely eliminate exposure to tracking. But, exposure can be reduced.