The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 138, January 1, 2023 (V3 #34)
January
Again I reply to the triple winds
running chromatic fifths of derision
outside my window:
Play louder.
You will not succeed. I am
bound more to my sentences
the more you batter at me
to follow you.
And the wind,
as before, fingers perfectly
its derisive music.
—William Carlos Williams
Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.—Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is not civil society and government that need tech leadership; it is technology that needs to retrieve the mechanisms of civil society and collective governance.—Doug Rushkoff
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
—from “The Year,” Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Politics
January 6: The Facts: A very concise summary of the Select Committee's Final Report, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 12/28/22: “ Now that a coup attempt has taken place, and we know a great deal about how it happened, it is important for us to ask some of the deeper questions about why it could have happened, not least to make sure that nothing similar takes place in the future.”
Criminal prosecution is the wrong idea. Use the 14th Amendment on Trump, Bruce Ackerman, Gerard Magliocca, Washington Post, 12/27/22: “Congress, led by Republicans willing to break with their party’s extremists, should bring the Jan. 6 tragedy to a close and enable Americans to set the nation on the road to a post-Trump future.” Ed. Note: this is what passes for political discourse? These are the dreams of fools.
Can We Plow Through the Blizzard of Nonsense? The last few months of 2022 offer some hope amidst the chaos, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 12/29/22: “What we actually need to happen is an ongoing and rapid evolution in the direction of clean energy, racial justice, and economic equality. But it’s hard to even have those conversations while craziness rules.”
She led two historic victories for abortion rights – by persuading Republicans: Rachel Sweet on the ‘uphill battle’ to protect reproductive rights in red states Kansas and Kentucky, Poppy Noor, The Guardian, 1/1/23
The Emancipators’ Vision: Was abolition intended as a perpetuation of slavery by other means? Sean Wilentz, NY Review of Books, 12/22/22 issue
‘It is a war’: senator and Auschwitz survivor Liliana Segre on fighting Italy’s far right: Liliana Segre, 92, has been subjected to racist attacks, and fears the Holocaust will become a footnote in the history books, Angela Giuffrida, The Guardian, 12/28/22
Southwest Airlines' Christmas Meltdown Shows How Corporations Deliberately Pit Consumers Against Low-Wage Workers: Our system is set up to create mutual antagonism between members of the working class. Meanwhile, faceless corporate executives remain shielded like mob bosses, Adam Johnson, The Column, 12/28/22
Dima and Elon’s Excellent Twitter Adventure: Kremlin officials and captains of industry were once serious people, Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 12/27/22: “I admit that I find myself ruefully nostalgic for a world that was dominated by serious adults who believed in serious things.” Ed. Note: I find myself wondering why anyone listens to these idiots except themselves.
How Russia has infected our politics: A view from 1,000 feet, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 12/31/22: “They’ll do it again, and then they’ll do it again and one day while we haven’t got our eyes on the ball and we’re being distracted by some new shiny thing over there, they might do it again with a figure slightly less felonious than Santos – but only slightly. Because we’re talking about the Republican Party here, folks – the party that is in the process of elevating Marjorie Taylor Greene into the upper reaches of its leadership ranks.”
With latest Title 42 ruling, Supreme Court majority makes a mockery of the law, Editorial Board, Washington Post, 12/28/22: “It is a job for Congress, not courts, to forge a solution.”
They Called 911 for Help. Police and Prosecutors Used a New Junk Science to Decide They Were Liars, Brett Murphy, ProPublica, 12/28/22: “The verdict: There was no scientific evidence that 911 call analysis worked.”
Tesla won't dominate the auto industry, because no one will: Another market that investors incorrectly hoped would be winner-take-all, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 12/30/22
China cracks advanced microchip technology in blow to Western sanctions: China has cracked a microchip design method previously only mastered by the West, in a challenge that could undermine sanctions, Gareth Corfield, MSN, 12/31/22
Can We Address the Climate Crisis by “Degrowing”? Supporters of degrowth emphasize the principles of the slow movement, Paige Curtis, Sierra, 12/29/22: “Rather than constant economic growth, we must focus on how to thrive—economically and socially—within planetary boundaries.” Ed. Note: This can’t work unless we change the frame. Degrowth will never be a broadly accepted prospect. We’d be better off with language that proposes sustainable economics as a “perpetual motion machine” for humanity.
Imagine, I can’t stop saying. Imagine, I beg,
when I should have said, Look: paradise
is both a particle and a wave. You don’t have
to believe in something for it to startle you awake.
—from “Look” by Franny Choi in The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On
Books ‘n Culture
AI or No, It’s Always Too Soon to Sound the Death Knell of Art: When the camera arrived on the scene, painters declared art dead. Sound familiar? Anthony W. Lee, Wired, 12/27/22: As Degas once told a painter friend who wanted nothing to do with newfangled amusements, “You need the natural life. I, the artificial.”
The Dark Risk of Large Language Models: AI is better at fooling humans than ever—and the consequences will be serious, Gary Marcus, Wired, 12/29/22: “In reality, large language models are little more than autocomplete on steroids, but because they mimic vast databases of human interaction, they can easily fool the uninitiated.”
Humans and AI Will Understand Each Other Better Than Ever: Transformers—data models based on neural networks—will radically change how machines interact with us, Mustafa Suleyman, Wired, 12/28/22: “Soon, we will live in a world where, regardless of your programming abilities, the main limitations are simply curiosity and imagination.” Ed. Note: hmmm. Maybe not? Sounds like more tech promoting bullshit yet again.
The battle to keep LGBTQ+books in Louisiana libraries: Conservatives in the state are pushing for library systems to remove books with LGBTQ+ themes and characters, Drew Hawkins, The Guardian, 12/22/22
Subpoenaed Fossil Fuel Documents Reveal an Industry Stuck in the Past: The industry is still running the same five-step plan, to the same end: preserving power, subsidies, and social license, Ann Westervelt, The Intercept, 12/24/22
Why Wearing a Mask Makes Me Feel Powerful: I’ve actually been masking long before the Covid pandemic, Frankie Huang, Catapult, 7/28/22: “Irrationally, I wished that the protection my N95 gave me against Covid could extend beyond keeping invisible enemies at bay.”
Pelé, Brazil’s ‘king of soccer,’ dies at 82: Quick, agile, adept with both feet and laserlike with his headers, he helped Brazil win three World Cup titles, Liz Clarke,Washington Post,12/29/22
How to Live on the Precipice of Tomorrow: People don’t have to know exactly what’s going to happen and how to prepare for it. In the meantime, they can focus on what they know to be true, Rose Eveleth, Wired, 12/30/22: “We don’t have to know exactly what’s going to happen and when to get ready for it. We can peel our eyes and hearts away from the pull of the cliff and focus on the structures that will keep us safe, that will support us in the meantime, that we can improve and act upon right now. And then, when we’re ready, we can choose whether or not to jump.”
Greta Thunberg ends year with one of the greatest tweets in history: Thunberg’s funny exchange is a reminder of the connection between machismo, misogyny and hostility to climate action, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian, 12/30/22: “Machismo and climate denial, as well as alliance with the fossil fuel industry, is a package deal for the right, from the “rolling coal” trucks whose plumes of dark smoke are meant as a sneer at climate causes to Republicans in the US who have long opposed nearly all climate action (and are major recipients of oil money).” Ed. Note: Like me, you might not have known who Andrew Tate was until he tweeted at Thunberg, who called him out brilliantly, then he got arrested in Romania for sex trafficking women because of his reply. Perhaps the most meta-post-modern event of an already meta-surreal year.
Today, I woke without answer.
The day answers, unpockets a thought from a friend
don't despair of this falling world, not yet
didn't it give you the asking
—from “Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me,” Jane Hirshfield
Science and Environment
Eight Times Science Exceeded Expectations in 2022: From asteroids to A.I., this was a year of scientific superlatives, Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker, 12/28/22
When the State Cut Their Water, These California Users Created a Collaborative Solution: In a potential beacon for other parched regions, a new program allowed users to share water, Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News, 12/26/22
From Climate Exhortation to Climate Execution: The Inflation Reduction Act finally offers a chance for widespread change, Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, 12/27/22: “This is the next phase of the fight, and we have to win it fast, which means that the need for mass movements hasn’t gone away, just begun to shift in focus.”
Mathematical Alarms Could Help Predict and Avoid Climate Tipping Points: A new study finds that mathematical tools can find early warning signals that can accurately predict climate tipping points, Charlie Miller, Inside Climate News, 12/27/22
Most Hopeful Climate Story of the Year: Cleaning Up the Airline Industry: Aviation is a major polluter and has missed most targets for reducing emissions. But this year, thanks to years of pressure, companies and policymakers began to change that, Liza Featherstone, New Republic, 12/28/22
Discarded oyster shells used to build new reefs in coastal Louisiana: The oyster reefs help protect the state’s coasts from extreme weather, JCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 12/28/22
Hunting for future-proof marine plants in the acidic waters bathing a volcano, Guia Baggi, MongaBay, 12/28/22: “The naturally acidic seawater near an underwater volcano in Italy mimic pH levels that according to worst-case climate projections will be common by the end of the century and beyond.”
Ancient farming practice makes a comeback as climate change puts pressure on crops, Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, 12/28/22: “Farmers used to plant "cover crops" to rejuvenate fields in the off season. As those were replaced with chemicals, the soil of America's farms suffered. Bringing back the old practice has surprising benefits for the planet — and for farmers.”
Winter-run Chinook in the Sacramento seeing lowest survival rate ever, Jane Vaughan, Jefferson Public Radio, 12/27/22
The mission to return jaguars to the US: ‘We aren’t right without them:’ The big cats once roamed North America but have been pushed near to extinction. Could they make a comeback? Erin McCormick, The Guardian, 12/28/22
Growing vaccine hesitancy fuels measles, chickenpox resurgence in U.S.: Anti-vaccine sentiment has increased since the pandemic, driven by politicization around the coronavirus vaccine, Lena H. Sun, Washington Post, 12/26/22
Coronavirus: Omicron BA.5 subvariant may cause more damage – not less: The coronavirus subvariant surging in China may be evolving to attack the brain, researchers say. The study challenges previous assumptions that viruses usually evolve to become less dangerous, Ling Xin, South China Morning Post, 12/28/22
As COVID-19 continues to spread, so does misinformation about it, Tiffany Hsu, Seattle Times, 12/28/22
Why do people like being tipsy? Here’s how alcohol affects the brain: The buzz produced by alcohol comes from a cocktail of pharmacology and social ingredients, research shows, Richard Sima, Washington Post, 12/29/22
As I look back
I can see me lost and searching
Now I find that I can choose, I'm free
—from “Lonely Too Long,” The Rascals, written by Edward Brigati/Felix Cavaliere
RIP Dino Danelli
Birds
Emperor penguin at risk of extinction, along with two-thirds of native Antarctic species, research shows: International study projects up to 80% of emperor penguin colonies will be ‘quasi-extinct’ by 2100, Donna Lu, The Guardian, 12/22/22
Historic winter sighting of hummingbird in Haddam causes flap among bird experts, Pam McLoughlin, Hartford Courant, 12/30/22
Snow Birds: 10 Birds to Look for in Winter, Justine E. Hausheer, Nature, 1/18/16
Winter Birds
they seem drunk
from the prospect
of winter warming
in new lands
and the watery
dreams below
—David Wilk
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.—Neil Gaiman
If you would be a poet, write living newspapers….Don't ever believe poetry is irrelevant in dark times. —Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Sunday, January 1, 2023, if you’re not in NYC, join the livestream of the Poetry Project’s 49th New Year’s Day Marathon. (begins at 2 pm eastern)
I walked
on New Year’s Day
beside the trees
my father now gone planted
evenly following
the road
Each
spoke
—Lorine Niedecker, from “Traces of Living Things”
Today is as good a day as any to think about change. I am not so much interested in cataloging the year just completed, it’s the present and the ever-unfolding future and its mysteries that are compelling. Today I day dream the future.
One of the reasons I love doing The Weird Times is that it enables me to capture and share some of the energy that connects us. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be in touch with so many of you and look forward to our continued journey together.
Covid’s development continues with its power and danger intact. Please stay safe. And please do keep in touch. Send news. I appreciate knowing that all of you are out there. Much love —David
They say the hearts and minds are on your side
They say the finish line is in your sights
What they don't say is what's on the other side
—from “Salt in the Wound,” Boygenius (Lucy Dacus/Julien Baker/Phoebe Bridgers)