The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 221, August 4, 2024 (V5 #13)
The so-called weirdos in this country stand as completely freaked out by the normal man as the normal man is completely freaked out by the weird masses’ reaction to him—Butthole Surfers
Fear is the lock and laughter the key—Stephen Stills
Books, Music, Art, Culture
Do not mess with the very old: Listen, and you will hear from them the exquisite chime of life, Anne Lamott, Washington Post, 8/1/24: “The greatest gift that people can accept at any age is that we’re on borrowed time, and they don’t want to squander it on stupid stuff.”
Why Do People Mix Up Names? Proper nouns are especially hard for the brain to learn and recall, Nidhi Subbaramam, Wall Street Journal, 7/30/24: “The ability to reject wrong responses gets worse with age, which is one possible reason older adults more frequently mix up names. This tendency on its own doesn’t signal mental decline.” (No paywall — DW: Feel better now? I do.)
How Simone Biles and Team U.S.A. Gymnastics Came Soaring Back: A sense of doubt had plagued the sport since Biles’s withdrawal from the Tokyo Games. The team’s success in Paris should definitively quash it, Eren Orbey, New Yorker, 8/2/24: “The redemption tour isn’t over yet.”
More States Are Passing Book Banning Rules. Here’s What They Say: Discussion about what books children should access has diminished on the national stage. But most rules pertaining to schools and libraries are made at the state and local level, Elizabeth A. Harris, NY Times, 7/29/24: “…new laws or regulations have gone into effect in Utah, Idaho, South Carolina and Tennessee that will make it more difficult for young people to access books and library materials.” (No paywall)
Faithless Reading: Culture will never be data, Patrick Nathan, Entertainment, Weakly, 7/30/24: “And just as fascism has no faith in humanity, a critical discourse that grounds itself in neuroscience, data, and commodity fetishism has no faith in literature.”
5 growing threats to academic freedom, Isaac Kamola, The Conversation, 7/29/24: “Legislation and academic gag orders; Activist governing boards; Donor influence; Erosion of tenure; Delegitimization of higher education.”
How Octavia Butler’s 1993 book ‘Parable of the Sower’ predicted our climate reality: Set in 2024, the sci-fi classic shows an America ravaged by climate change. Here's what the book got right — and what we can learn from it, Syris Valentine, Grist, 7/31/24: “She teaches us how to acknowledge the hardships ahead without succumbing to doom.”
The Power of Her Song: Remembering Bernice Johnson Reagon: At once a singer and composer, a scholar and cultural historian, and an educator, activist, and curator, Reagon is remembered as a “lighthouse” and “part of the heart and soul of Washington,” Alona Wartofsky, Washington City Paper, 7/31/24: “Bernice kept her eyes on the prize, and the prize was freedom, the prize was equality, opportunity.”
The Word Longing Is Nestled Inside Belonging: The Need for a Political and Somatic Strategy Rooted in Love, Sarah Shourd, Freedom Blooms, 7/29/24: “Our only real enemies are ideas, the policies and institutions that enforce them, and the interests beyond them — not the people manipulated by them…. Belonging is not a place where we arrive; it is a state we risk our hearts for again and again.”
God will find the pattern and break it.
—from “Anticipated Stranger,” John Ashbery
Politics, Economics, Technology
$10M cash withdrawal drove secret probe into whether Trump took money from Egypt: Political appointees rejected efforts to search for additional evidence investigators believed might provide answers, then closed the case, Aaron C. Davis, Carol Leonnig, Washington Post, 8/2/24 (No paywall – A must-read story, impactful and important on multiple levels.)
WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich Is Free: Release of 32-year-old American from Russia secured as part of largest East-West prisoner swap since Cold War, Drew Hinshaw, Joe Parkinson, Aruna Viswanatha, Wall Street Journal, 8/1/24 (No Paywall)
Kamalapalooza: The liberal grassroots coalition has transformed Kamala Harris’s fortunes. How can she harness its power? Joseph O’Neill, NY Review of Books, 8/3/24: “When she wears the mantle bestowed on her by the ActBlue movement, the fighter’s mantle of the anti-Trump, there is nothing phony about her.”
Kamala didn't just flip the script. She released a flood of pent up emotion and energy. The speed and efficiency of her rise showed how ready she was, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 7/30/24: “Energy and excitement are where the power is in politics. Period. Stop. Go no further.”
Trump’s usual sexist sneers don’t work against Harris – and to top it off, she’s laughing at him: Younger, slicker and more telegenic than her rival, the Democratic candidate really might just beat him, Emma Brockes, The Guardian, 8/1/24: “Harris meets Trump at the demotic level and states the bleeding obvious: ‘These guys are weird.’”
Who's "weird"? A campaign insult offers a window into American society in the 2020s, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 7/31/24: “‘Weird’ to conservatives means ‘outgroup’, and that’s why they hate it so much.”
The Courage to Be Kind in This Election: Focus on what's important, Charlotte Clymer, Web Thoughts, 8/1/24: “This election is about the past versus the future….I know which way I wanna go. I hope everyone starts walking that way too.”
The Biggest Success Story the Country Doesn’t Know About: Yes, inflation has been punishing. But there is a mountain of good news that media have barely reported. Here’s the real record the Democrats can run on, Dean Baker, New Republic, 7/29/24
The election in Venezuela, explained, Isaac Saul, Tangle, 7/31/24: “Venezuela’s years-long crisis has now reached its peak. It demands urgent action from the United States and democracies around the world.”
Civil Religion as a Gateway to Christian Nationalism: The inclusion of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was a sectarian move whose exclusionary effects are increasingly evident in today’s religious landscape, Brian Kaylor, Beau Underwood, Barn Raiser, 7/29/24: “If a civil religious alternative to religious nationalism could ever flourish in a healthy way for a body politic, that era is in the past for the United States.”
The political media are entertaining us to death: MAGA fascism wins when storytelling gets in the way of truth-telling, Mark Jacobs, Stop the Presses, 7/29/24: “I wish journalists would be a tad less bored with the threatened demise of democracy.”
The media fails to take Trump at his word. Again: Three theories about why journalists don't sound the alarm loud and clear about his authoritarian plans, Margaret Sullivan, American Crisis, 7/29/24: “I urge news decision-makers to take Trump’s authoritarian desires very seriously. When they do so, it matters, as we’ve seen with more coverage of Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term. People are beginning to understand how diabolical it is.”
Trump’s Oath of Denial: He tried to overthrow an election once—why not expect him to do so again? Thomas Powers, NY Review of Books, 8/2/24: “January 6 was unimaginable the last time; we still have three months to imagine what Trump might try next.”
How to harden our defenses against an authoritarian president: A commander in chief with little concern for legal limits holds a big advantage over any lawful effort to restrain him, Barton Gelman, Washington Post, 7/30/24: “Friends of our constitutional republic may need to defend it implacably, by every lawful means.”
Is the Fed Chair trying to get Trump elected by keeping rates high? Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 8/3/24
The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans, Alec MacGillis, ProPublica, 8/1/24: “…the logic of Project 2025 is embedded in the DNA of Trump’s plan to overhaul the government.”
Donald Drumph's Identity Politics: The Real Threat to Our Country, Joe Klein, Sanity Clause, 8/1/24: “American Democracy is not at stake in 2024. American decency is.”
Trump's Political Downfall: The "Fat Elvis" Phase Begins? He hasn’t grown or developed new routines; he’s just daily reliving his old hits, playing to a nostalgic and mostly elderly audience who fondly remember his glory days...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 8/2/24
Navajo Nation plans to test limit of tribal law preventing transportation of uranium on its land, Felicia Fonseca, AP News, 7/30/24: “Obviously the higher courts are going to have to tell us who is right and who is wrong. But in the meantime, you’re in the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.”
With Hezbollah and Hamas assassinations, Netanyahu shows willingness to risk regional war for political survival, Asher Kaufman, The Conversation, 7/31/24: “His decision to authorize the assassinations in Beirut and Iran should be understood in the context of his fight for his political survival.”
Assassinating Haniyeh has Devastated Hopes for a Ceasefire – and has Brought the Region to the Brink, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Shalom Rav, 8/2/24: “By killing its own negotiating partner, Israel has made it substantively more difficult to realistically imagine an end to Israel’s genocidal onslaught, a return of Israeli hostages and a Palestinian prisoner exchange any time soon.”
The Aftermath of the Haniyeh Killing: How to Avoid a New Middle East War, Brianna Rosen, Just Security, 8/1/24: “But escalation is not inevitable. Through strategic diplomacy and the clear communication of red lines, there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to pull all sides back from the precipice.”
But when the sun went down, the rapid tempo of the music fell
"C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell
—from “You Can Never Tell,” Chuck Berry
Science, Environment
What Ted Lasso Can Teach Us About Climate Politics: A new book urges a bottom-up approach to building a majority that favors climate action and an energy transition, Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News, 8/1/24. Book: Climate of Contempt: How to Rescue the U.S. Energy Transition from Voter Partisanship, by David Spence
Atomic Fallacy: Why Nuclear Power Won’t Solve the Climate Crisis:[ Debunking] Some Common Arguments About Energy In an Era of Ecological Emergency, M.V. Ramana, LitHub, 7/29/24: “Although climate change scares me, I am even more scared of a future with more nuclear plants.”
Antarctic temperatures soar 50 degrees above norm in long-lasting heat wave: This historic warm spell in East Antarctica is an ominous example of the temperature spikes this polar climate could experience more of in a warming world, Kasha Patel, Washington Post, 7/31/24
Tropical Glaciers in the Andes Are the Smallest They’ve Been in 11,700 Years: Four different glaciers along the Andes range no longer have hospitable conditions, Alexa Robles-Gil, Inside Climate News, 8/3/24
Wildfires devastated Jasper. The soot and ash are putting Alberta's glaciers at risk, scientists warn: Ash is darkening Athabasca Glacier, causing it to absorb more solar heat and hastening glacier melt, Inayat Singh, CBC, 8/1/24
As World Warms, Global Heat Deaths Are Grossly Undercounted: Kristie Ebi, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, has been studying the human health impacts of climate change for decades. In an interview with e360, she makes a case for standardizing how heat deaths are reported and for additional investment in heat resilience, Richard Schiffman, Yale Environment 360, 8/1/24
US Forest Service failing to protect old growth trees from logging, critics say: Biden’s efforts to save mature trees are not getting enough Forest Service support, according to some conservationists, Oliver Millman, The Guardian, 8/2/24
Long-term whitebark pine restoration project aims to save the trees for future generations: The Western species has been hard-hit by wildfires, mountain pine beetles, and blister rust, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 7/30/24
For the best forest restoration ROI, focus on the least and most logged places: Researchers working in an experimental forest in Borneo showed that forest ecosystems undergo sudden shifts when logging reaches certain thresholds, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 7/31/24
Cows Could've Eaten It! Useful lies, harmful truths, and corn agriculture, Chris Jones, Swine Republic, 7/29/24: “… if the Ag Titans don’t want it, then you ain’t gettin’ it.”
Global methane emissions rising at fastest rate in decades, scientists warn: Researchers call for immediate action to reduce methane emissions and avert dangerous escalation in climate crisis, Oliver Millman, The Guardian, 7/30/24
Fast fashion is a major contributor to microplastics pollution, experts say, Meredith Bruckner, CBS News, 7/30/24: “…one way to address the issue of microplastics in clothing is to change the way you consume and wash clothes.” (DW: Don’t buy synthetic clothing, wash clothes less, keep clothes longer, reuse.)
The Cure for Disposable Plastic Crap Is Here—and It’s Loony: Stretchy seaweed, reverse vending machines, QR-coded take-out boxes: They’re how we can break society’s absurd addiction to single-use plastics, Clive Thompson, Wired, 8/1/24: “Replace some of our single-use plastics with truly compostable materials. Replace another chunk with reusable containers, like metal or glass. And, finally, tweak the economic incentives so plastic recycling actually works.”
The Hard Work of Bringing Kelp to Market: As seaweed farms develop on both coasts and begin to contribute to America’s blue economy, much depends on infrastructure, Alexandra Talty, Civil Eats, 7/31/24: “Anything you do on a boat is a long day.”
The Very Hungry Urchins: Researchers are restoring the Caribbean’s surprising, spiky custodians, which gobble up the algae smothering coral reefs, Lisa S. Gardiner, Hakai, 7/30/24
The ‘Internet of Animals’ Could Transform What We Know About Wildlife: Scientists studying migrations, endangered species, and global change are placing tracking devices on thousands of animals that will be monitored by a satellite-based system set to launch next year. If successful, the project could help illuminate the planet’s nonhuman worlds, Hilary Rosner, Yale Environment 360, 7/30/24
Advances in oil and gas drilling technology could boost geothermal energy: The same tech used in the oil and gas shale boom could help reduce the cost of drilling for clean, renewable geothermal, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 8/1/24
Train Travel in America Is Making a Comeback: Passengers are taking advantage of expanded rail service across the country, underscoring the demand for alternative modes of transportation, Jacob Passy, Wall Street Journal, 7/30/24 (No Paywall)
The future of paper could come from gene-edited trees: Scientists are working to develop a tree that could ease the production of paper, resulting in less energy use and less pollution, Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 8/1/24
Astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol: ‘I believe Mars still has some big surprises for us:’ The director of the Carl Sagan Center on the possibility of life elsewhere in our solar system, what Venus can teach us about global heating, and what she thinks of Elon Musk, Killian Fox, The Guardian, 8/3/24
What Color Is Night? What you see overhead is a combination of where you are, how our vision evolved, and that flimsy layer of atmosphere that keeps us all alive, Rebecca Boyle, Atlas Obscura, 7/31/24
‘Metaphysical Experiments’ Probe Our Hidden Assumptions About Reality: Experiments that test physics and philosophy as “a single whole” may be our only route to surefire knowledge about the universe, Amanda Gefter, Quanta, 7/30/24: “…we can’t know, that is, whether objectivity itself is on the metaphysical chopping block — until we can define what counts as an observer, and figuring that out involves physics, cognitive science and philosophy.”
Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it's necessary
to talk about trees.
—from “What Kind of Times Are These,” Adrienne Rich
Health, Wellness
Want to change the world? Start by changing yourself – however terrifying it might be: It’s easy to blame your problems on everyone else. It’s much more difficult to face your own failings and take agency in your life, Moya Sarner, The Guardian, 7/29/24: “In order to change, we have to face up to the parts of ourselves we pretend not to know about, that we do not like, and understand our own responsibility for our part in our circumstances.”
Can a 6-second kiss each day lead to a more intimate relationship? Albert Stumm, AP News, 7/31/24: “A daily intimacy exercise pioneered by couples therapists and clinical psychologists John and Julie Gottman, the six-second kiss is what it sounds like — taking a few moments out of each day to connect physically with your partner.”
Evidence mounts that shingles vaccines protect against dementia: Being immunised against shingles has been linked to a reduced dementia risk before and now a study suggests that the newer vaccine wards off the condition more effectively than an older one, Christa Lesté-Lasserre, New Scientist, 7/25/24
More Evidence Links Ultraprocessed Foods to Dementia: Recent research, including a new study on processed meat, has suggested these foods can affect brain health. Experts are trying to understand why, Dana G. Smith, Alice Callahan, NY Times, 7/31/24 (No Paywall)
Wildfire smoke hard on brain health, increases dementia risk: More than any other type of pollution, smoke from wildfires boosts likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease, Lois M. Collins, Deseret News, 7/29/24
Birds, Birds
Birds come down with wanderlust at this time of year, Charles Seabrook, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/2/24: “…this phenomenon is called “post-breeding dispersal,” when young, first-year birds and some adults that have finished breeding seem to aimlessly wander around.”
How a Crisis for Vultures Led to a Human Disaster: Half a Million Deaths: The birds were accidentally poisoned in India. New research on what happened next shows how wildlife collapse can be deadly for people, Catrin Einhorn, NY Times, 7/29/24 (No paywall)
Miscellany
This week I posted a new Writerscast interview with Kevin Baker, author of The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City. Have a listen – it’s also on Spotify, Apple, etc.
Help East Bay Booksellers Come Back! Brad Johnson, GoFundMe, 7/31/24: “On Tuesday morning July 30th, 2024 the building housing East Bay Booksellers burned down.” DW: they’re looking for $200,000 to rebuild, have raised $175,000 so far. Local bookstores are important. Please help if you can.
So much happened this week it was impossible to include everything I wanted to tell you about. So I left out a lot. I am sure you won’t notice what is missing anyway. C’est la vie, eh?
Nonetheless, I hope this week’s collection of links and stories provides some hope, and also some attention to things that matter you might have otherwise not known about.
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 your own news. Hearing from you makes this all worthwhile.
Above all, stay well; share love; work for good. We need each other, now more than ever.
Love always—David