Brain Cells on a Chip, Lost Canadians & Christmas Gifts
Here’s your weekly(-ish) roundup of everything I’ve curated or created online, December 17–December 25, 2023.
A Ball of Brain Cells on a Chip Can Learn Simple Speech Recognition and Math by Shelly Fan in Singularity Fan
The team carefully dropped each mini-brain onto a stamp-like chip jam-packed with tiny electrodes. The chip can record the brain cells’ signals from over 1,000 channels and zap the organoids using nearly three dozen electrodes at the same time. This makes it possible to precisely control stimulation and record the mini-brain’s activity. Using an AI tool, abstract neural outputs are translated into human-friendly responses on a normal computer.
Self-Censorship and Don Quixote: Bringing Prudential Judgment Back In by Alan Jacobs in The Hedgehog Review:
When one is deciding whether to research or publish something potentially controversial, the language of “self-censorship” removes the question from the moral realm in which it properly belongs.
Al Gharbi concurs.
Comment on ‘Pope Francis Allows Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples’ by Alan Jacobs in The Homebound Symphony:
It’s hard to see how historic Catholic teaching on marriage and historic Catholic teaching on papal authority can emerge unscathed from this.
What Countries Are the Most Religious? Which Ones Are The Least? by Ryan Burge in Graphs About Religion:
A Canadian is basically twice as likely to say that religion is not important at all compared to an American.
We Raise 18 Billion Animals a Year to Die—And Then We Don’t Even Eat Them by Kenny Torrella in Vox:
Over 5 percent of the 9.3 billion chickens raised for meat in the US—around 500 million chickens—die on the farm.
Nearly all the chickens raised for food in the US come from a handful of breeds that grow incredibly large, incredibly fast, which not only means the birds are in constant pain, but it can also lead to leg deformities and other health issues that cause premature death, like heart attacks and starvation or dehydration due to the inability to walk and get feed and water.
52 Things I Learned in 2023 by Tom Whitwell in Magnetic Notes:
A “nonattitude” is a weakly held belief, entirely invented in response to a question in an opinion poll.
Did Paul Write the Pastorals? Seven Questions For Those Who Think He Didn’t by Andrew Wilson in Think Theology:
The claim that the Pastoral Epistles are the work of the apostle Paul himself, and not of a pseudepigrapher, or even of a close disciple writing after his death, must be allowed to stand as a valid position based on proper scholarly criteria.
The Proverbs of Social Media, Part Seven: Wisdom Fulfills the Desires of Your Heart by O. Alan Noble in You Are Not Your Own Substack
We are called to not forget the teachings of wisdom and to follow her commandments. The result is what so many on social media desperately seek after: a long life and peace.
‘Lost Canadians’ Beat Ottawa in Court Over Charter Violations That Never Should Have Happened by Chris Selley in National Post:
Ottawa’s bizarre battle with a group of would-be Canadian citizens—foreign-born children of Canadian citizens who were themselves born abroad—met a comprehensive rebuke this week at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Judge Jasmine Akbarali ruled that the provision, which dates from 2008, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Both Section 6 (which guarantees mobility rights) and Section 15 (which guarantees equal treatment under the law).
Christmas Gifts by Alan Jacobs in The Homebound Symphony:
Here superimposed on Christmas Day, that most innocently festive of days, is the immense tragedy of Good Friday.
Music
Shout, exult, arise, praise the days
The conductor walks us through the piece here.
Joseph, my dear faithful one,
Let us search for lodging;
Time is pressing and calling me
To give birth.
I feel the fruit of life,
This dear child from heaven
Who, with a holy life,
Will appear before our eyes.
Via Art and Theology.
The lamp lit streets of Bethlehem
We walk now through the night
There is no peace in Bethlehem
There is no peace in sight
The wounds of generations
Almost too deep to heal
Scar the timeworn miracle
And make it seem surreal
Sitting around with a log on the fire -a kaladu, kaladu.
Singing along with the family choir.
Bright are the lights and -a bright is the season.
Christ was -a born and -a that is the reason!
Fragment
Top 5 Protein-Dense Plant-Based Foods:
Spirulina
Lupin flour
Hemp seeds
Tempeh
Faba beans