Links: Invisible and Fragile Connections

$a purple background with a three-armed newtonian fractal fadiating from the center$

I'm a lifelong geek with a passion for books and social justice. Fuck around and find out.

m





This may appear to be a random assortment, but it isn’t. It really, really isn’t.

The James Webb Space Telescope and a Quest Every Human Shares “There was no military or economic advantage in devoting 25 years and $10 billion of national treasure to build a telescope, of all things, devoted not to looking down at our enemies, but out across time and space, trying to decipher the nature and condition of our origins. We all share the quest even if we all don’t get the time and chance to obsess about it. It’s not just Einstein’s universe, it’s ours too. Our crib and our crypt.” (NYT link; sometimes you can defeat the paywall by saving an article to Pocket or other similar service.)
The Five Big Ways the James Webb Telescope Will Help Astronomers Understand the Universe Space. Space. Spaaaaaaaaace. You’ll never convince me that space exploration isn’t worth the investment.
How We Broke the Supply Chain I find this subject both fascinating and depressing. I have a little bit of knowledge about how modern supply chains work from BadOldJob and even pre-pandemic, it was obvious that it was an incredibly fragile thing based on the number of people who were working in the supply chain group–most of the business at the office I was at, in fact. I haven’t had a chance to really dig into The American Prospect‘s whole issue on the subject, but from what I have read, it’s excellent.

Two somethings completely different–or are they?:

Living and Dreaming in Budapest I love this piece from Theodora Goss about her recent move to Budapest for the next few months. I don’t know why, I just love it. Maybe you will, too.
On Fractals and Self-Replication: An Acceptance Speech I Didn’t Give And this. This is so good. Just so fucking good. I just want to quote the whole thing–which I’m not going to do. Go read. I’ll wait for you, in the dark.

And because I really couldn’t resist:

Ancient Toilet Unearthed in Jerusalem Shows Elite Were Plagued by Intestinal Worms The headline pretty much says it all. But then there is this bit in the author’s biography and I am here for it: “…and has won four awards for covering the science of poop.” How do you get on the poop beat as a reporter?

Fractal image generated by usefuljs.com/fractals/