The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 196, February 11, 2024 (V4 #40)
Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.
—Iris Murdoch
Books, Art, Music, Culture
Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs Gave America a Rare Gift: Harmony: Culture can too often drive us apart. At the Grammys on Sunday, two artists delivered something different, Lindsay Zoladz, NY Times, 2/5/24: “It was a rare reminder of music’s unique ability to obliterate external differences. “Fast Car” is about something more internal and universal. It is a song about the wants and needs that make us human: the desire to be happy, to be loved, to be free.”
Driving in Circles: The generational longing of "Fast Car,” Sarah Kendzior, Newsletter, 2/5/24: “Sometimes you can say a lot without saying much at all. Sometimes a singer says it for you. Sometimes the most mundane actions have a lasting effect.”
The tight end the right turned against: why Travis Kelce is the man for Taylor Swift: Like the singer, the Chiefs football player is at the top of his field, while his support of BLM and vaccines align with her progressive politics, Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian, 2/10/24
Narrative Collapse: What if it's even worse than if the conspiracies were true? Douglas Rushkoff, Newsletter, 2/7/24: “Present shock and digital technology and the eternal “now” is really disorienting and scary. We're desperate so we try to tie things together, connecting the dots to creating pointillist narratives — what I called ‘fractalnoia.’”
Inside the Underground Site Where ‘Neural Networks’ Churn Out Fake IDs: The site, called OnlyFake, threatens to streamline everything from bank fraud to money laundering, and has implications for cybersecurity writ large, Joseph Cox, 404 Media, 2/5/24
Missouri Secretary of State Candidate Promises to Burn Books, Kelly Jensen, Book Riot, 2/7/24: “I will BURN all books that are grooming, indoctrinating, and sexualizing our children. MAGA. America First.”
How anarchists in North Carolina rescued books banned in Florida: A bookshop in left-leaning Asheville is now sending children’s books back to the Sunshine State, Lori Rozsa, Washington Post, 2/10/24. Their “Banned Books Back” project sends banned books to Floridians who want them. Learn more about the project and fundraising effort here.
Cancel Culture Dominates Children’s Literature: Publishers and authors live in fear that self-interested ‘activists’ will deem their work ‘problematic,’ Jonah Winter, Wall Street Journal, 2/7/24: “The campaign to bring diversity to children’s books must be separated from cancel culture, from social-media mobs, from the vitriolic intolerance toward any dissenting opinions that veer at all from the new orthodoxy.” (Gift)
Privacy's Last Gasp, Gord Hotchkiss, Media Insider, 2/6/24: “…the rapid onslaught of disruption caused by AI is unfurling a massive red flag when it comes to any illusions we may have about our privacy.”
‘Reading is so sexy’: gen Z turns to physical books and libraries: Book sales boom as readers escape the ‘oversaturation and noise of the wild west digital landscape,’ Chloe Mac Donnell, The Guardian, 2/9/24: “There is a lot of appreciation for literary fiction, memoirs, translated fiction and classics in particular…”
Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event? Ads are scarce, search and social traffic is dying, and readers are burned out. The future will require fundamentally rethinking the press’s relationship to its audience, Clare Malone, New Yorker, 2/10/24: “Many journalists working today have only ever been part of a culture of decline.”
Writing Away the Angel in My Bedroom: On OCD: on the Manifestations of Anxiety, Cynthia Marie Hoffman, LitHub, 2/9/24: “Revisiting the angel is a way to revisit my younger self. For a moment, I can comfort that girl cowering under her quilt by showing her how far she’ll come. I show her my magic trick.” Book: Exploding Head: Poems
Gaming the Lyric: Poetry in 8-Bit, Maria Dikcis, Public Books, 2/7/24: “Just as verse form shapes the development of an image or rhythm for traditional poets, so too does platform influence the ideation of a feeling for game poets.”
I think of the unwritten chapters of our stories.
Life is devoid of meaning, my friend once said.
We are the meaning, I declared,
while our laughter echoed.
—from “Remember Our Names,” Haya Abu Nasser
Politics, Economics, Media
Everything is on the Line, Steve Schmidt, The Warning, 2/11/24: “A country that is in a foul mood isn’t going to give Joe Biden four more years because of his legislative achievements. The election is a choice. The choice for Trump ends the American way of life if he succeeds in doing what he has promised. Everything is on the line. The Biden White House political strategy has failed. It is time to turn. Immediately. The future of America depends on it.”
How to steal a US election: Harvard’s Lawrence Lessig on Trump’s new threat: Law professor’s new book offers a stark warning about loopholes that could let Republicans overturn the election, Lawrence Lessig, The Guardian, 2/11/24: “The third wargaming scenario is the one that really keeps Lessig up at night: what if an entire state legislature decided to go rogue?” Book: How to Steal a Presidential Election
Was the GOP Plan All Along to "Break" America to Make Room for an Authoritarian Strongman? You have to break government pretty badly before people are willing to trade in a normal democracy for a dictatorship, but it’s sure happened before...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 2/7/24
Republican Dreams of Political Domination: “Compromise is for suckers” and other evidence of strongman fantasies, Damon Linker, Notes from the Middle Ground, 2/8/24: “The Republican Party in Congress is acting like it’s trying to demonstrate to the American people that the country needs a dictator to get anything done.”
When Rule of Law Becomes Rule of the Lawless: Pinochet's Chile as a warning for us today, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, 2/8/24: “Law was at the center of the destruction of democracy in Chile: complicit judges and prosecutors transformed the law from "a shield for individual rights into a weapon of persecution.”
The Coming Flood of Disinformation: How Washington Gave Up on the Fight Against Falsehoods, Nina Jankowicz, Foreign Affairs, 2/7/24: “Predictably, in a sprawling government that lacks an overarching strategic vision on how to handle the disinformation threat, efforts to address disinformation have made little progress during Biden’s years in office.”
Russia Is Boosting Calls for ‘Civil War’ Over Texas Border Crisis: An all-encompassing Russian disinformation campaign is using everything from bots to lifestyle influencers to powerful state-run media to sow division in the United States, David Gilbert, Wired, 2/7/24
Will SCOTUS Remove the Threat of Trump or be as Political & Corrupt as Bush v Gore Was? Odds are, however, that this decision will be as political and corrupt as the 2000 Bush v Gore was. But I’m more than willing to be surprised, Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 2/8/24
The Supreme Court and the Risks of January 6, 2025: The Justices seem to want to avoid a major decision about whether Trump can serve as President—but if they do so they may set off a national crisis, Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 2/8/24: “It was evident that the Justices have no appetite for resolving the question that motivated this case to begin with: whether Trump engaged in insurrection.”
The "Border Crisis" Is Not About Immigration: It's about Christian Nationalism, Jess Piper, The View from Rural Missouri, 2/9/24: “Christian nationalism is at the heart of much of the hate we see.”
The Ruth Bader Ginsburg Syndrome: Has anything hurt the Democrats as much as old lions refusing to leave the stage? Andrew Sullivan, Weekly Dish, 2/9/24
Trump is too old and incited a coup. Biden is too old and mixes up names. America, how to choose? The special counsel has put the president’s memory in the spotlight, but if we’re talking about amnesia: 6 January, anyone? Marina Hyde, The Guardian, 2/9/24
The Biden special counsel’s egregious abuse of power, Ruth Marcus, Washington Post, 2/9/24: “Prosecutors are supposed to remain above the partisan fray, not embroiled in it.”
Six months after Maui wildfire, 5,000 survivors still stranded: ‘We’re tired of broken promises:’ Red Cross says only a third of households who sought emergency shelter have moved into homes, as governor’s pledge rings hollow, Nina Lakhani, The Guardian, 2/7/24
Hawaii rules against public carrying of guns without permit citing ‘aloha spirit:’ State’s high court upholds the Hawaiian Spirit Law and quotes The Wire in apparent rebuke to US supreme court: ‘They the old days,’ Edward Hellmore, The Guardian, 2/10/24
How the Gun-Reform Movement Can Finally “Break” the Grip of the Firearm Lobby: Emma Brown, lays out a fresh vision for engaging Republicans on firearm safety, a topic she thinks will be a major motivator for voters in 2024: “There’s zero ambiguity about where Donald Trump stands on this issue,” Eric Lutz, Vanity Fair, 2/7/24
‘Nowhere to hide’: Chinese scientists develop game-changing military surveillance device for electronic warfare: Scientists say they have achieved seamless, wide bandwidth, real-time monitoring and analysis of the electromagnetic spectrum, Stephen Chen, SCMP, 2/6/24: “It covers a massive frequency range which picks up everything from amateur radio broadcasts to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites.”
Lenin’s Lesson for Israel and Ukraine: If there is one element of Vladimir Lenin's political legacy that is worth praising a century after his death, it is his insight into what it takes to remain truly faithful to one's cause. Whether in Israel or Ukraine today, the only political path forward is the one that avoids blind dogmatism and cynical opportunism, Slavoj Žizek, Project Syndicate, 2/6/24
The Ukraine war is ultimately about Poland: When Putin talks, we should listen, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 2/9/24: “Ethnic imperialism is exactly what we’re facing in Russia right now.”
Putin's genocidal myth: The foolishness of fascism, revealed in the Carlson interview, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 2/11/24: “Putin leaves things out before his narrative begins, gets things wrong during his narrative, and leaves things out as his narrative ends.”
Violence in the Middle East: Targeted killings and tit-for-tat exchanges, Lawrence Freedman, Comment is Freed, 2/11/24: “Israel has to work out whether whatever marginal further gains it may make against Hamas are worth its almost complete international isolation, and how can it improve its security without addressing the demands of Gaza’s reconstruction and governance.”
Is there a way to achieve peace in Israel and Palestine? I believe there is: If the current tragedy offers any hope, it’s a growing clarity on how Palestinians and Israelis could forge a brighter future for their children, Daniel Levin, The Guardian, 2/7/24: “…is there anything that could work, anything that could end the decades of killing and despair? Turns out, there is. That something is a confederation of two independent states. This would combine the necessary elements of a two-state solution – the separation of Palestinians and Israelis – with the aspirational ingredients of a one-state solution: freedom of employment, movement and residency in the entire territory, subject to strict security stipulations, and a coordinated fiscal and economic policy.
A confederation would acknowledge each nation’s deep connection to the whole land, but also make it clear that neither one could own it all. Citizens of each nation would only vote in their own state, but they could visit, reside, work or study in the other.”
Ah - the Sea!
Might I but moor - tonight -
In thee!
—from “Wild nights - Wild nights!” Emily Dickinson
Science, Environment
‘I was thrilled and shocked’: images raise hopes of return of wild jaguars to the US: A series of sightings suggests the big cats are, against the odds, growing in numbers in New Mexico and Arizona. But Trump’s border wall could yet halt their progress, Samuel Gilbert, The Guardian, 2/6/24
Anchovy Sex Is a Force of Nature: It’s not the size of the fish that counts, it’s the motion of the ocean, Christina Couch, Hakai, 2/7/24: “Most animals mate, but few do so with such frequency, and with so many bodies packed so closely together, as anchovies.”
Has the planet warmed more than we thought? Ocean sponges might be telling us something, Seth Borenstein, APNews, 2/5/24: “The big picture is that the global warming clock for emissions reductions to minimize the risk of dangerous climate changes is being brought forward by at least a decade.”
Atlantic Ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ tipping point, study finds: Collapse in system of currents that helps regulate global climate would be at such speed that adaptation would be impossible, Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, 2/9/24
Antarctic Tipping Point That Occurred 8,000 Years Ago 'Could Happen Again:’ "We now have direct evidence that this ice sheet suffered rapid ice loss in the past," said a Cambridge researcher, Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, 2/9/24
Europe calls for swift reduction of fossil fuels, despite ‘greenlash:’ Europe unveiled plans for cutting climate emissions 90 percent by 2040, even as protests continue against government regulations, Chico Harlan, Washington Post, 2/6/24
Carbon Notes 11 China's energy transition path and the global carbon budget, Adam Tooze, Chartbook, 2/9/24: “…it is China that dominates the global equation.”
Metals Could Reveal Corals’ Past Lives: Examining the role of stable metal isotopes in biological activities such as photosynthesis provides a promising new avenue of research into how coral responds to environmental stressors, Nathaniel Scharping, Eos, 2/6/24
The remarkable restoration a degraded coastline brought on by returning sea otters: A new study demonstrating how otters slow coastal erosion underscores the far-reaching benefits of reintroducing top predators, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 2/7/24
Nuclear fusion reaction releases almost twice the energy put in: The US National Ignition Facility has achieved even higher energy yields since breaking even for the first time in 2022, but a practical fusion reactor is still a long way off, Matthew Sparkes, New Scientist, 2/5/24
Your recycling is a mess. AI could help: The world’s biggest builder of recycling plants says it will retrofit thousands of waste plants with AI tools to better sort recycling, Nicolás Rivero, Washington Post, 2/7/24
A New Mexico electric utility is developing microgrids to keep the lights on when the larger grid goes down: Kit Carson Electric Cooperative provides power to 30,000 households in rural northern New Mexico, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 2/5/24
The unbearable whiteness of Neptune: Science's fiery hunt for real colors, Erik Hoel, Intrinsic Perspective, 2/7/24: “…in Neptune’s loss of color I see the long march of science, and its effect on our even longer search for meaning.”
‘Cosmic time machines’: how space telescopes transformed our ability to understand the universe: The launch of Hubble in 1990 marked a turning point in our quest to unravel the mysteries of deep space, Andrew May, The Guardian, 2/11/24
Outside, even the sun god, dressed in this life
as a lizard, abruptly rises
on stiff legs and descends blasé toward the shadows.
—from “At Noon,” Reginald Gibbons
Health, Wellness
What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything: When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other, Nora Bradford, Quanta, 2/5/24
‘We hold you sacred’: how a mobile drug unit is fighting the opioid crisis in the Cherokee Nation: Led by Native people, an Oklahoma program provides life-saving supplies and addiction care to remote tribal areas, Elyse Wild, The Guardian, 2/8/24
Birds, Birds, Birds
Birds on the brink: Audubon, birders banding together to save RI's birds, Alex Kuffner, Providence Journal, 2/6/24: “If there’s hope for these birds, it can be found in conservation efforts that have saved other birds.”
Wild Side: Reconsider ducks: Duck watching is a great way to polish your birding skills, Matt Pelikan, Martha’s Vineyard Times, 2/7/24
Absence of female partners can explain the dawn chorus of birds: Why birds sing intensely in a dawn chorus during the early morning has long been debated. Evidence gathered from observing birds in the wild offers a fresh perspective on what might drive this phenomenon, Diego Gil, Nature, 2/6/24
After dinner I’ll get you
a cab, my twenties,
but you’ll take the shape
of a great gray bird
and fly away.
—from “To My Twenties,” Laura Cronk
Wherever you are, whoever you are with, whatever you are doing — you have my warm regards and thanks for who you are and what you do. Please continue to keep in touch. Send messages and news….
Stay well; share love; work for good. We need each other, now more than ever. The only thing keeping this plane of existence from disappearing is the love between us.
Best wishes—David