The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 207, April 28, 2024 (V4 #51)
Books, Music, Art, Culture
Remembering Trina Robbins, Andrew Farago, Comics Journal, 4/24/24: “Trina Robbins was larger than life, a force of nature whose impact on comics, on feminism, and on social movements spanned generations.”
Helen Vendler, ‘Colossus’ of Poetry Criticism, Dies at 90: In the poetry marketplace, her praise had reputation-making power, while her disapproval could be withering, William Grimes, NY Times, 4/24/24: “Vendler has done perhaps more than any other living critic to shape — I might almost say ‘create’ — our understanding of poetry in English.”
“In the Stories We Share and Those We Have Not Yet Crafted—We Live Forever:” From Her Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement Speech, Dorothy Allison, LitHub, 4/22/24: “What if life really was a story? What if you could alter the plot? Assign meaning to the most brutal contempt?”
Billy Bragg: ‘There’s nothing like going out there singing your truth. That ain’t changed:’ The singer-songwriter’s brand of stubborn protest songs with a strain of tenderness has kept him relevant for 40 years. Here he talks about why he’s fighting for trans rights, his late-night tweeting habit and his forthcoming tour – with his son, Tim Adams, The Guardian, 4/28/24: “Some people sing about love, some about war, some about a better world to come. Well, I sing about all three.”
There’s a revolution happening in children’s publishing—you can thank the book bans: Publishers are fighting back on book bans by flooding the market with books representing diverse points of view, Elizabeth Segran, Fast Company, 4/22/24
How to teach your two-year-old to read: More importantly, why to do it, Erik Hoel, Intrinsic Perspective, 4/25/24: “Educational researchers refer to early-age reading as “a head-start” and consistently find it positively correlated with future educational achievement, and practices like language-centric bedtime routines (the specific place where I first recommend reading practice) are found to causally improve cognitive outcomes.”
Legacies of Eugenics: An Introduction, Osagie K. Obasogie, LA Review of Books, 4/17/24: “…the notion of scientists controlling human reproduction and eventually our evolution is inherently political. There can be no disentanglement; such attempts only obfuscate what is at stake.”
AI and the End of the Human Writer: If a computer can write like a person, what does that say about the nature of our own creativity? Subrath Subramanian, New Republic, 4/22/24: “Written expression changed us as a civilization; we recognize that so well that we use the invention of writing to demarcate the past into prehistory and history. The erosion of writing promises to be equally momentous.”
To Resist the Robots, Get a Typewriter, Mark Hurst, Creative Good, 4/26/24: “I want technology that is going to stay quiet and unobtrusive until I direct the thing to do my bidding. Like a shovel.”
What Medieval Poets Can Teach Us About Climate Change, and What Evangelicals Today Get Wrong: on How Medieval Christian Writers Accepted Ecological Collapse, Eleanor Johnson, LitHub, 4/22/24: “In Gawain we encounter the terrifying prospect that our civilized places are vulnerable to total annihilation.”
I Understand Thee, and Can Speak Thy Tongue: California Unlocks Shakespeare’s Gibberish, Frank Bergon, LA Review of Books, 4/23/24: “I think he knew what he was doing: capturing the sound of a rare, ancient language, surviving nearly intact today—the speech of Basques. On National Talk Like Shakespeare Day, it might be best to listen. After all, Shakespeare had a good ear.”
Photographing a Lost New York: When I moved to Lower Manhattan in 1967, I decided to make a picture of every building in the neighborhood before the city knocked it down, Danny Lyon, NY Review of Books, 4/25/24 Book: This Is My Life I’m Talking About
Politics, Economics, Technology
We have a radical democracy. Will Trump voters destroy it? Robert Kagan, Washington Post, 4/24/24: “It is what the Founders worried about and Abraham Lincoln warned about: a decline in what they called public virtue. They feared it would be hard to sustain popular support for the revolutionary liberal principles of the Declaration of Independence, and they worried that the virtuous love of liberty and equality would in time give way to narrow, selfish interest.”
On America’s Two-Party System… And the Damage It Has Done: Think Beyond the Red/Blue Binary That Makes Enemies of Neighbors, Gabrielle Bellot, LitHub, 4/23/24: “Imagine an America where political conversation and compromise weren’t quaint, quiescent notions, relics of romanticization.”
The Representation Gap: We need to take the real cause of right-wing populism seriously if we are to defeat it, Sheri Berman, Persuasion, 4/24/24: “If mainstream parties are unable to close representation gaps, or to diminish the salience of issues on which anti-establishment parties feed, the appeal of the latter will remain.”
A National Security Insider Does the Math on the Dangers of AI: Jason Matheny, CEO of the influential think tank Rand Corporation, says advances in AI are making it easier to learn how to build biological weapons and other tools of destruction, Lauren Goode, Wired, 4/23/24: “There's a lot of vulnerability in society. Covid was a demonstration of this.”
History Already Tells Us the Future of AI: David Ricardo, one of the founders of modern economics in the early 1800s, understood that machines are not necessarily good or bad. His insight that whether they destroy or create jobs all depends on how we deploy them, and on who makes those choices, could not be more relevant today, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, Project Syndicate, 4/23/24
‘In the US they think we’re communists!’ The 70,000 workers showing the world another way to earn a living: The Basque Country’s Mondragón Corporation is the globe’s largest industrial co-operative, with workers paying for the right to share in its profits – and its losses. In return for giving more to their employer, they expect more back, Oliver Balch, The Guardian, 4/24/24
Shocker From Top Conservative Judge: Trump Likely To Skate Completely: J. Michael Luttig sees two potential outcomes from Thursday’s Supreme Court arguments. Both are grim for our democracy, Greg Sargent, New Republic, 4/27/24: “Luttig’s fear that Trump may very well skate centers on the lines of questioning from the court’s right-wing majority about Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing prosecution of Trump.”
Trump immunity case suggests new role for supreme court: kingmaker: Oral arguments over former president’s claim of immunity seem to have left Trump happier than the justice department, Martin Pengelly, The Guardian, 4/25/24: “I’m trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into … the seat of criminal activity in this country.” (Justice Sotomayor)
Justice Can’t Wait: But Federalist Society justices do when it suits their purposes, Michael Podhorzer, Weekend Reading, 4/24/24: “…the only reason voters might not hear a verdict before they cast a ballot is because the six Federalist Society-approved Supreme Court justices (including three that Trump himself appointed) don’t want them to.”
Is SCOTUS in on the Coup and Trying to End American Democracy? The simple reality is that conservatives throughout modern history have viewed democracy with a jaundiced eye, and the Supreme Court’s Republican appointees are no exception...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 4/26/24
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Argues Presidents Must Be Allowed to Commit Federal Crimes or Democracy as We Know It Will Be Over: Incredible logic from the conservative wing of the Court, Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, 4/25/24
‘Demolishing democracy’: how much danger does Christian nationalism pose? Documentary Bad Faith looks at the history of a group trying to affect and corrupt politics under the guise of religion, Adrian Horton, The Guardian, 4/27/24
How Columbia’s Campus Was Torn Apart Over Gaza: The university asked the N.Y.P.D. to arrest pro-Palestine student protesters. Was it a necessary step to protect Jewish students, or a dangerous encroachment on academic freedom? Andrew Marantz, New Yorker, 4/25/24: “…it seems to me that antisemitism is against the rules, but criticism of Israel’s actions is not, or at least it shouldn’t be.”
What Was the American Jew? Reflections on the outburst of anti-Semitism on Columbia’s campus, Sam Kahn, Persuasion, 4/23/24: “American Jews are left being told by everybody that they have to make a choice—with Israel or against it; condemning “genocide” or complicit in it. And what American Jews have to do, I believe, is to have the courage not to choose.”
Some thoughts about the Columbia University protests: As the head of a journalism ethics center there, I've seen what's happening from the inside, Margaret Sullivan, American Crisis, 4/25/24: “…my sympathies lie squarely with the rights of free expression, academic freedom, press freedom and the right to assemble — all of which have been threatened or harmed in recent days at Columbia.”
College administrators are falling into a tried and true trap laid by the right, Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, The Conversation, 4/26/24: “The purpose then, as it is now, is to intimidate administrators into a false political choice: Will they protect students’ right to demonstrate or be seen as acquiescent to antisemitism?”
I’m a Jewish student at Yale. Here’s what everyone is getting wrong about the protests, Ian Berlin, CNN, 4/27/24: “Throughout this past week, large student groups of many faiths frequently joined in singing “Mi Shebeirach,” the Jewish prayer for healing, and “Olam Chesed Yibaneh,” which calls for building a world where compassion leads. …At Yale, organizers of all faiths continue to build a community that is dedicated to moving forward in collaboration with, not opposition to, Jewish students.”
Palestine is the end of the line for the New Left: Whatever you think of Israel, there's just no future in “global intifada” and “Death to America,” Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 4/23/24: “Even setting aside the extremists who show up to the protests and say antisemitic things and express support for Hamas and Iran — and it isn’t at all clear we should set them aside — the Palestine protests embrace an unworkable ideology. They represent a distorted, fantastical view of foreign policy, an anti-Americanism that can’t possibly be appeased or mollified, and a set of unworkable and often immoral policy demands.”
In war-battered Gaza, residents grow angry with Hamas, Claire Parker, Heba Farouk Mahfouz, Hazem Balousha, Hajar Harb, Washington Post, 4/27/24: “The anger mounting now in the enclave appears centered on stalled cease-fire talks, with Hamas insisting on a permanent truce and Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza before it hands over any hostages.”
Taking the Long View: On a clear day in 1977, one could plainly and painfully see the bloody state we’re in today, Etgar Keret, Alphabet Soup, 4/25/24 Excerpt from a piece written by Israeli poet Yehonatan Geffen in 1977: “The Day of Masada will be much like other days, and all days after the Day of Masada will be night.”
Hmmm… do I need a title? Mo Husseini, Medium, 4/26/24: “There is no path to freedom that begins with oppression of the other….EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT THE SOLUTION IS. Two states. Viable. Secure. Independent. Self-determining. Sovereign…. Two states, living side by side, is a compromise of maximalist ideals on both sides, but it’s a compromise that bows to reality and safeguards our future.”
If I’m living in the land of plenty
Yet still hoping for something else
When I know I’ve got enough already
Man, enough already
—from “Enough Already,” Taylor Goldsmith
Science, Environment
Scientists unlocked solar patterns that could help understand space weather: The sun is emitting high energy radiation in weird patterns, Kasha Patel, Washington Post, 4/21/24: “Predicting extreme solar events would be a huge improvement in our understanding of the sun, like predicting an earthquake before it strikes.”
The Mysterious ‘Dark’ Energy That Permeates the Universe Is Slowly Eroding: Physicists call the dark energy that drives the universe “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years, Charlie Wood, Wired, 4/28/24
What are virtual power plants? They could help utilities balance electricity supply and demand as more renewables join the grid, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 4/22/24: “For the first time, we can take distributed energy resources, which have been around for many years, but we can organize them to act like power plants.”
In Coastal British Columbia, the Haida Get Their Land Back: By affirming Indigenous land ownership, British Columbia and the Haida Nation are signaling a new era for Indigenous relations, Serena Renner, Hakai, 4/22/24
It’s the world’s first Indigenous-led ‘blue park.’ And Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation pulled it off without waiting on Canada: Awarded for protecting sea life, Gitdisdzu Lugyeks Marine Protected Area is also the first ever ‘blue park’ in Canada, Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood, The Narwhal, 4/25/24
Navajo Power seeks to rectify energy injustice deep in Navajo Nation: Organizations in Navajo Nation are fighting energy injustice with solar power, Ginger Zee, Daniel Manzo, Kelly Livingston, Kelly Landrigan, ABC News, 4/22/24
10 Times as Much of This Toxic Pesticide Could End Up on Your Tomatoes and Celery Under a New EPA Proposal: Against the guidance of scientific advisory panels, the EPA is relying on industry-backed tests to relax regulations on acephate, which has been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. “It’s exactly what we recommended against,” one panelist said, Sharon Lerner, ProPublica, 4/24/24
Bioplastics as toxic as regular plastics; both need regulation, say researchers, Alden Wicker, Monga Bay, 4/22/24: “merging research shows that plant-based plastics — just like petroleum-based plastics — contain many thousands of synthetic chemicals, with large numbers of them extremely toxic.”
Hawaiian scientist quests to find and save the state’s distinctive sugarcanes: Sugarcane biodiversity disappeared as big plantations dominated the sugar trade in Hawaii, but now old varieties are making a comeback, Kiki Aranita, The Guardian, 4/24/24
Ecologists Struggle to Get a Grip on ‘Keystone Species’ More than 50 years after Bob Paine’s experiment with starfish, hundreds of species have been pronounced “keystones” in their ecosystems. Has the powerful metaphor lost its mathematical meaning? Lesley Evans Ogden, Quanta, 4/24/24: “You can’t manage out of ignorance. You have to know what species do, whom they eat, what role these prey species play. When you know that, you can make some intelligent decisions.”
It’s hard to get your bearings in a world that doesn’t care
Positions I took long ago feel comfy as an old armchair
But the kids that pull the statues down they challenge me to see
The gap between the man I am and the man I want to be
—from “Mid-Century Modern,” Billy Bragg
Health, Wellness
A Test Told Me I’m Basically Made of Plastic. You Probably Are Too, Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 4/26/24: “People are getting these exposures day in and day out.”
How cleaning product chemicals called ‘quats’ may affect the brain: A common ingredient in household disinfectants has been shown in lab studies to affect certain brain cells, Teddy Amenabar, Washington Post, 4/25/24: “…we have fundamentally shown, very rigorously, that oligodendrocytes have a specific vulnerability to these chemicals.”
131 million in U.S. live in areas with unhealthy pollution levels, lung association finds: The report also found that people in the United States experienced more “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” air quality days than any time in the survey’s history, Evan Bush, NBC News, 4/24/24
How America Lost Sleep: Many Americans are reporting that they’d feel better if they slept more, but finding the right remedy isn’t always simple, Lora Kelley, The Atlantic, 4/25/24: “A good night of sleep consists of four factors: amount of sleep, quality of sleep, timing of sleep, and state of mind.”
What Longer Lifespans Mean For Overall Human Health: on Aging and Disease in the Modern World, Andrew J. Scott, LitHub, 4/26/24: “A new era where the young grow up to become very old in large numbers is leading to a significant shift in society’s disease burden.”
Birds
Why a Bigger Grid is Good for the Planet – and Birds: Audubon is advocating for the rapid expansion of responsibly sited transmission, Alice Madden, Audubon, 4/22/24: “Our commitment to advocate for responsibly sited clean energy and transmission infrastructure is central to reaching our climate goals.”
Early analysis finds eclipse had noticeable effect on birds, Pat Leonard, Phys.org, 4/23/24: “You can expand it to a much bigger picture examination of the ways animals perceive cues from their environment, a grander sort of sensory ecology study.”
who cares for the lapwing
who for the tufted vetch
who cares for the dingy skipper
who for the dune gentian
who cares for the barn owl
who who who
—from “Flight Across the Heather,” Thomas A. Clark
I’ve posted a new interview on Writerscast.com, with author/publisher Lee Klancher talking about his massive history of the Farmall tractor (and yes it is interesting even if you care nothing at all about farming or tractors!), The Farmall Century.
It’s been awhile since I wrote anything here about this writing this newsletter. It’s often been a problem for readers that many of the links lead to paywalled articles. In recent issues, I’ve tried to link as much as possible to stories you can actually read. The Guardian has removed its paywall altogether, so now you can read all the articles I post from that excellent newspaper. And most of the NY Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal articles to which I link now are free to read through link shares from those sites.
Every week as I compile these stories and links, I am reminded of hope and love, family, friends — all of you — and how we must stand together, lean on each other—despite all that challenges us, all our struggles, I know that we will prevail.
Wherever you are, whoever you are with, whatever you are doing — thanks for who you are and what you do. Please continue to keep in touch. Send messages and news.
Above all, stay well; share love; work for good. We need each other, now more than ever.
Love from here—David