January 2025 newsletter: it's got links! And it's early!

This will be a short links-only newsletter to close out the year.

Hank Green makes the case that not only are all the problems in the world not evidence that we're stupid, our ability to see that the problems are problems is rare and possibly unique among species on Earth, and it's because we're smart that we have a chance to avoid self-destructing. It's a rare sort of productive optimism that should be less rare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcbtkVTAyqM

"Is Everyone Stupid?" - an honest, and eventually self-reflective look at what happened in November. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8R4XeNcHu8

With the flood of drone sightings, I thought it might be of interest to share that ships in Star Trek have the same navigational lights as real ships, planes, and some drones on Earth. https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/navigation-lights.htm

What makes music "right" or "wrong" depends on context and what you've been exposed to. Odds are there's some music theory to explain this, but it's not necessary to appreciate that it still sounds good. Music theory supports the practice of music. Treating it as an end rather than part of a journey narrows thinking and leads to, for example, an entire genre of theory that struggles to see past a few long-gone German composers. Or people watching this interesting classic video and declaring all four chord music bad and hacking even though the example songs are all well-liked.

Now if you don't mind, I'm off to mangle some four-part harmony with acid synths and no fewer than three SID emulators over I - V - vi - IV.