Have you ever wondered how astronauts stay safe in the event of a failed launch? That’s where the launch escape system comes in. These come in three flavours, solid rocket motor, liquid rocket motor, or ejector seat. In this video, we’ll talk about how these work, and show you some live examples using the spaceflight simulator Reentry.
LES’s that we cover: Mercury, Apollo, Soyuz, Shenzou, SpaceX’s crew Dragon capsule, Boeing’s Starliner, Blue Origin’s New Shephard, Gemeni, and Vostok. We also cover why the space shuttle didn’t have an LES, and what it had instead.
Have scientists found Dyson spheres around nearby stars, proving the existence of advanced alien civilisations? You’d be forgiven for thinking they did, given the headlines recently. While it’s premature to say this is what we’ve discovered, the reality is pretty interesting anyway.
In this video, I discuss what Dyson spheres are, what they might be used for, and what these recent studies actually found. I explore other concepts like the Kardashev scale, Matrioshka brains, and interstellar travel.
In this video, I summarise some of the arguments for and against thinking the future will go well (assuming no extinction event occurs), and discuss how to think about prioritisation of reducing extinction-risk vs focusing on generally improving the longrun future for longtermists. I discuss some key writings on this topic, such as Nick Bostrom’s Astronomical Waste, Joe Carlsmith’s Actually Possible: Thoughts on Utopia, and Jacy Reese Anthis’ The Future Might not be so Great.
Regretfully, I have been neglecting my blog lately. However, I’ve been actively making videos for TikTok and Youtube for the last few weeks, and have been enjoying that a lot. At the moment, I’m mostly making videos about space science, but we’ll see what the future holds.
I resisted TikTok for many years. I did make an account quite early and posted two videos, but after hearing some early security/privacy concerns, I deleted my account. Eventually I decided the opportunity for TikTok as a communication platform was greater than the risk.
It’s certainly a strange time to get into TikTok, creating my account within days of a TikTok ban being announced in the US.
A friend asked me to take a quiz with ethical questions and see how my answers compared to Cosmic Skeptic. I did, and found that I disagreed with a lot of what Cosmic Skeptic said. This surprised me, since I have found myself agreeing with most things they have said in the past.
When your low pitch tinnitus finally stops and you only have to deal with your high pitch tinnitus.
I’ve been living with tinnitus (chronic ringing noise in ears) for at least a year. I want to talk a little about my experience and what I’ve learned because I knew nothing about tinnitus before and suspect many people might not either. There may even be some people who have never realised they have it.
First, tinnitus is not a disease. It’s the symptom or expression of something else that is wrong with the auditory system, which includes your outer ear (outside the eardrum), middle ear, inner ear and the auditory nerve connecting the ear to the brain. Tinnitus is often caused by noise exposure, but there are many other causes. In worst cases, it can be caused by a heart/blood disease or a brain tumour. If you are experiencing tinnitus, I’d recommend at minimum raising it with your general practitioner.
Credit to https://slocountyhearingaids.com/
I first noticed tinnitus in my left ear around a year ago. It manifested as a loud, rushing, pulsing noise in my left ear. It was more noticeable when my surroundings were quiet, like when I was trying to sleep. At first I thought it might be because I’d recently moved or was stressed, but when it didn’t let up after a few weeks I visited the GP. They said it might be due to ear wax build up and suggested I get a dewaxing liquid to drip into my ear. This would supposedly soften up the wax and help it drip out.
A few weeks later I was having the same issue so I went back. They cleaned out my ears with a water pump. A few weeks later it was still there, but I noticed a different ringing. I’d been concentrating on my hearing more than I usually do, and I noticed a high pitch ringing. It was fairly quiet, but once I noticed it, it was hard to ignore. I have no idea how long it had been there. Was it recent, or had I just been tuning it out? This was in addition to the louder, lower pitch ringing, but it was in both ears rather than just the left. Again, it was barely noticeable if at all when other noise was present, but was annoyingly loud when I was sleeping.
I remember asking my family to be quiet for a minute and listen. “Can you hear a high pitch ringing? No? Just me? Cool.”
My GP explained that we’ve ruled out the outer ear, but the problem may be with the middle or inner ear. They gave me a nasal spray to ‘clear out the middle ear’ (I paraphrase, I wasn’t sure on the science here). This didn’t help. My GP then referred me to an ear specialist who administered some hearing tests and ordered an MRI to look for brain tumours or other inner ear/brain issues. My hearing was fine (minus the ringing) and the MRI was clear. This was a pretty big sigh of relief, but didn’t offer an answer or a solution.
I’ve gotten better at adapting to the reality of chronic tinnitus. For a long time it affected my sleep, but I now have a routine of having some white noise in the room (with my dehumidifier or fan) or playing white noise through headphones or speakers to drown out the ringing. As long as I have one of these, my sleep is fine.
Recently, the lower pitch ringing seems to have stopped. I don’t know why but I hope it stays that way. I can only hope the other ringing stops eventually too, but for many people tinnitus is a chronic issue they deal with for their whole lives.
As for what caused it, I’m not sure. If I had to guess based on what I know now, the most likely candidate would be noise-induced hearing damage. From around the age of 18 to 22, I went clubbing a lot. Like 1 to 3 times a week a lot. I listened to a lot of loud music. At the time and after I never noticed any issues with hearing loss or tinnitus. I later counted myself as lucky. Could this be delayed onset of this exposure?
Another possible explanation is a game I play and love, Escape From Tarkov. This is a survival shooter with loud gunfights. I saw a post on Reddit several months ago which I thought was very well said. To paraphrase:
“Tarkov tricks you into having your volume turned up way too loud. Because most of a game will consist of you sneaking around trying to listen out for footsteps of enemies nearby, you will be inclined to turn your volume up. The sooner you hear your opponent, the more likely you are to win. But these periods of quiet are followed by explosively loud gunfights with automatic weapons firing at close range. The game prides itself on realism, which is great, but it means firearms are very loud relative to other sounds (more so than other shooter games).”
So it may be that my playing Tarkov (I started around 2 years ago) has in some way lead to my tinnitus. I’ve since been more careful about keeping the volume at a more reasonable level, even if it affects my gameplay.
There has been some talk about the possibility of being able to manage tinnitus with meditation/mindfulness. I’ve tried this a little with no success, but remain hopeful about one day being able to trick myself into enjoying the sound, or ignoring it, or something similar.
Finally, there are researchers looking at tinnitus and thinking about how to mitigate the symptoms. Stay tuned.
Hello everyone! Today I’m excited to announce that this year I will be running for council in the Gulgadya/Leichhardt ward of Inner West Council.
One of the key factors I want to bring to the Inner West Council is to make sure that the non-human animals who we share this council with, both domestic and wild, are given the appropriate consideration when decisions are made in council. The companion and wild animals who we live with deserve a good life just as much as we do.
I also believe that my scientific background would be a good addition to council decision making process. We need to make sure that decisions which affect those who live in our council are made using evidence and reason to come up with the best solutions possible.
Please join me in striving to ensure the Inner West Council is the best possible council it can be for its residents, human and non-human alike.
If you have ideas or concerns, I want to hear from you! Please feel free to reach out at any time.
Recently I had a great chat with Jamie Woodhouse on the Sentientism podcast where we talked about a lot of different topics (listed below). This interview was unique for me as Jamie asked a lot of questions I had never thought about the answer to before, in particular relating to my transition from Catholic to atheist. I hope you’ll enjoy the discussion.
We discuss (from the show notes):
Michael’s PhD (pending) in space mining, terraforming, colonisation and asteroid deflection
Effective Altruism. Earning to give to do good vs. doing good directly
Peter Singer’s TED talk
Leaving industry for a full time PhD and becoming an Animal Justice Party politician
Michael’s Morality is Hard podcast, blog and Vegan Space Scientist YouTube
Growing up Catholic and attending a very religious school
Taking the Christian god, hell and heaven for granted. Being told every day it was true
Struggling with the fear of death without an afterlife. The comforting fiction of heaven
The painful realisation at 19 yrs that “not any of it was true” and becoming an atheist
The centrality of our own experience and the difficulty of conceiving of not existing
Searching for meaning after religion. Exploring and identifying with utilitarianism and consequentialism
“The only things sentient minds can value are suffering and wellbeing”. Everything else we think we value is a means to an end or we’re tricking ourselves
Our common evolutionary history with other sentient beings
Panpsychism and whether atoms are sentient/conscious
If electrons are “conscious” it must be very boring and they’re still not sentient
Caring for companion animals but eating other animals as a child
Going vegetarian for environmental reasons, becoming more open to ethical veganism, then switching
Insect, digital mind and alien sentience
“Sentientism just captures everything and its future proof”
CosmicSkeptic grudgingly identifying as Sentientist: “The term has absolutely no wit about it”
Is Sentientism the only moral discrimination?
It’s a solid bet to focus on spreading good values, naturalism and expanding our moral circle, when we’re in a world of moral uncertainty and epistemological complexity
Are all human-caused problems due to poorly founded beliefs and/or moral consideration exclusions?
Veganism is becoming more mainstream, but more farmed animals and fish are suffering & dying
I made a video about why bouldering has become such a big part of my life.
Note to any fellow gamers – consider trying bouldering at least once! I found many similar aspects to video games and it’s the most I’ve ever enjoyed any sport or fitness activity.
I’m excited to bring you the first episode of the Morality is Hard podcast in several years with the Honorable Emma Hurst, MLC.
The Honorable Emma Hurst, MLC, was elected to the NSW Legislative Council in 2019, the second member of the Animal Justice Party to be elected to NSW government. She is a registered psychologist and has worked for several animal protection organisations. Since being elected, she has been working on legislation to help animals in NSW. In our chat, we got in to some interesting questions and tricky issues, so I really hope you’ll enjoy the interview.
COI: I am also a member of the Animal Justice Party.
You can find this episode on Youtube, Soundcloud or on your favourite podcast app within 24 hours.
