The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 150, March 26, 2023 (V3 #45)
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.—Michael Jordan
Books and Culture
"The impact of City Lights on American literature has been revolutionary, which may be the highest compliment one can bestow upon an enterprise whose goal since its inception has been to transform both the realm of literature and society beyond. … Far more than a press or a bookshop, City Lights shines as a beacon for innovation and justice and as a guiding flare for readers and writers across the globe who dream of a better world."—National Book Critics Circle prize committee chair Jacob M. Appel on City Lights, winner of the second annual Toni Morrison Achievement Award.
Nick Cave on the Fragility of Life: The singer-songwriter believes that we are deeply flawed, impermanent creatures who can sometimes do extraordinary things, Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 3/23/23: “Cave has become an unexpected Virgil for anyone mired in grief and casting about for a warm but unsentimental guide.”
How Two Pieces of Art 50 Years Apart Helped Me Hate Cooking a Little Bit Less: on Semiotics of the Kitchen and Lessons in Chemistry, Rosalynn Tyo, LitHub, 3/23/23: “Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.”
Hitting the Aesthetic Triad While Gazing at Art: on the Workings of Neuroaesthetics, Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross, LitHub, 3/22/23: “There is a neurochemical exchange that can lead to what Aristotle called catharsis, or a release of emotion that leaves you feeling more connected to yourself and others afterward.”
How Smart People Can Stop Being Miserable: Intelligence can make you happier, but only if you see it as more than a tool to get ahead, Arthur C. Brooks, Atlantic, 3/23/23: “…loquacious logophiles might have byzantine lives and find themselves in manifold precarious situations that lower their jouissance. (They talk themselves into misery.)”
This course uses ‘Abbott Elementary’ to examine critical issues in urban education, Sara Jones, The Conversation, 3/22/23: “By integrating the pop culture perspective of “Abbott Elementary” with interdisciplinary scholarly perspectives, students will learn how to take a more critical and nuanced look at education.”
Our New Promethean Moment, Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 3/21/23 (Gift article): “…the tornado scene where everything and everyone are lifted into a swirling gyre, including Dorothy and Toto, and then swept away from mundane, black and white Kansas to the gleaming futuristic Land of Oz, where everything is in color. We are about to be hit by such a tornado.”
Willis Reed, who led the Knicks to two NBA titles, dies at 80: His heroic performance during Game 7 of the NBA Finals vs. the Lakers is considered one of league’s greatest moments, Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 3/19/23
Freewheelin’ to fame – the untold story of Bob Dylan’s iconic VW van: The blue camper on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan summed up the free-spirited 60s. It was owned by a New York butcher and this is its hidden story, Billy Heller, The Guardian, 3/24/23
Indie supergroup Boygenius: ‘Anything that starts a fire in you is the stuff of life:’ Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker are three of the best – and most obsessed-over – songwriters today. Ahead of a debut album together, they explain why they go to group therapy, Laura Barton, The Guardian, 3/24/23 (Ed: I love this band)
I don't know why I am the way I am
There's something in the static
I think I've been having revelations
Coming to in the front seat, nearly empty
Skip the exit to our old street and go home
Go home alone
—from “Not Strong Enough,” Julien Baker/Lucy Dacus/Phoebe Bridgers
Politics
TikTok is part of China’s cognitive warfare campaign: Militaries are racing to develop weapons that could one day directly assault or disable human minds. We ignore this broader context at our peril, Nita Farahany, The Guardian, 3/25/23: “an evolution in warfare, moving from the natural and material domains – land, maritime, air, and electromagnetic – into the realm of the human mind.”
Should the US ban TikTok? Can it? A cybersecurity expert explains the risks the app poses and the challenges to blocking it, Doug Jacobson, The Conversation, 3/23/23: “The aspect of TikTok I find most concerning is the algorithm that decides what videos users see and how it can affect vulnerable groups, particularly young people.”
The TikTok Hearing Revealed That Congress Is the Problem: The interrogation of CEO Shou Zi Chew highlighted US lawmakers’ own failure to pass privacy legislation, Dell Cameron, Wired, 3/23/23
A Shoutdown at Stanford: Why free speech is “worth the squeeze,” Alex Morey, Persuasion, 3/24/23: “If universities fail to recognize their role in fostering our collective social and political values, and fail to educate students about the importance of free expression, their graduates will surely go on to fail the rest of us.” (Ed. Note: important article, please click through to read it.)
“You Know What? I’m Not Doing This Anymore:” There’s a quiet new crisis brewing in Texas following the abortion ban. It could get much worse, Sophie Novack, Slate, 3/21/23
A nightmare for women in Idaho could be coming to all of us soon, Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, 3/23/23: “the Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care.”
Progressives need to embrace progress: Stasis won't lead to a prosperous or equitable society, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 3/23/23: “Many current progressive approaches are detrimental to progress not as others would define it, but as many progressives themselves would.”
Only one thing will solve the fentanyl crisis, Sam Quinones, Washington Post, 3/23/23: “Unlike with heroin, there is no such thing as a long-term street-fentanyl user. They all die.”
If We Don’t Take on Bullies — Particularly Fascist Bullies — They Never Stop: Bullying has now become the trademark behavior of the GOP, the result of Donald Trump’s entrance on the scene in 2015 when he successfully bullied and cowed every other GOP presidential candidate, Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 3/23/23
Trump allies misrepresent crime in NYC, Tesnim Zekeria, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 3/23/23: “the claim that crime is at record levels in New York City is false.”
Is the GOP "War on Woke" to Keep Racial & Queer Minorities “In Their Place?” The next two or three election cycles will determine our nation’s fate: a more widespread democracy or the Russian-style fascism promoted by Trump and DeSantis. Stay tuned and stay woke! Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 3/23/23
We’ve Been Getting Waco All Wrong: “It would be impossible to overstate just how monumental Waco was in the advancement of the anti-government movement,” says the filmmaker behind just one of this spring’s series about David Koresh and his Branch Davidians, Jane Borden, Vanity Fair, 3/23/23
Why Stormy Daniels matters, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 3/20/23: “Trump schemed to conceal relevant information from the voting public in the days before the election, engaged in an elaborate coverup, and then lied about his involvement. This deceit was a subversion of the democratic process and may have changed the course of history.”
The High Cost of Being Poor: The American government gives the most help to those who need it least. This is the true nature of our welfare state, Matthew Desmond, NY Review of Books, 3/21/23
Banking crisis, or inequality crisis? On SVB, etc., Jessi Jezewska Stevens, q-sharpwhydunnit, 3/20/23: “… a national economic strategy that divides all profits between the poles of NY and SF, concentrates it in the hands of a small number of rich people in either tech or finance (or both!: venture capitalism), and whose decisions now direct the entire economy, bank regulation, and Fed policy. The result is a financial environment where all risk-taking is public, and all the profits are privatized.”
Biden Moves Forward with Mining Project that will Obliterate a Sacred Apache Religious Site: In court, the feds said Oak Flat would be in the hands of mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP by early summer, Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept, 3/22/23
I am telling you the devil is impersonating Christ in America
America's educators & preachers are the mental-dictators
of false intelligence they will not allow America
to be smart
—from “The American Way,” Gregory Corso (1961!)
Science and Environment
New IPCC Report Shows the ‘Climate Time Bomb Is Ticking,’ Says UN Secretary General António Guterres: The latest climate science assessment warns—once again—that global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius would be devastating for Earth’s people and ecosystems, Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, 3/20/23
The IPCC’s Latest Climate Report Is a Final Alarm for Food Systems, Too: In this week’s Field Report, food and agriculture in the IPCC’s summary report, new drinking water limits for PFAS, and policy debates over food insecurity, Lisa Held, Civil Eats, 3/20/23
‘A living pantry’: how an urban food forest in Arizona became a model for climate action: A decades-old neighborhood project in Tucson provides food to residents as well as shade to cool streets in the third-fastest warming city in the US, Samuel Gilbert, The Guardian, 3/21/23
Learning the Climate Lesson of Pine 58: Making sure that our forests grow more trees like this towering eastern white pine will allow natural forests to assist carbon drawdown for centuries after the rest of us are gone, William Moomaw, Common Dreams, 3/20/23
First birds, now mammals: how H5N1 is killing thousands of sea lions in Peru: Avian flu has decimated the marine creatures on the country’s Pacific coastline and scientists fear it could be jumping from mammal to mammal, Dan Collyns, The Guardian, 3/21/23
North Sea cod are getting smaller—can we reverse that? Fishing wreaks havoc on North Sea cod evolution; long-term planning can help, Doug Johnson, Ars Technica, 3/19/23
Brave newt world: the species swimming against the tide of Italian marble: The discovery of the endangered Italian alpine newt in a disused mine has shone a light on the biodiversity hiding in the Carrara marble quarries of Tuscany, Alice Pistolesi, Monica Pelliccia, The Guardian, 3/23/23
I Saw the Face of God in a Semiconductor Factory: As the US boosts production of silicon chips, an American journalist goes inside TSMC, the mysterious Taiwanese company at the center of the global industry, Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 3/21/23: “God means nature. We are describing the face of nature at TSMC.”
What Lit the Lamps That Let Humanity Measure the Universe: Type Ia supernovas are astronomers’ best tools for measuring cosmic distances. In a first, researchers recreated one on a supercomputer to learn how they form, Lyndie Chiou, Wired, 3/19/23
US teens say they have new proof for 2,000-year-old mathematical theorem: New Orleans students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson recently presented their findings on the Pythagorean theorem, Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian, 3/24/23
The professor trying to protect our private thoughts from technology: Prof Nita Farahany argues in her new book, The Battle for Your Brain, that intrusions into the mind are so close that lawmakers should enact protections, Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 3/26/23. Book: The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
States test an electrifying idea: roads that can recharge your electric vehicle: The technology could allow freight trucks to transition to electric by making it possible for them to use smaller, less expensive batteries, Jenni Bergal, Oregon Capital Chronicle, 3/21/23
From Gas Wells to Rubber Ducks to Incineration, the Plastics Lifecycle Causes ‘Horrific Harm’ to the Planet and People, Report Shows: With plastic production expected to triple by 2060, a scientific commission this week recommended banning or severely restricting the manufacture and use of unnecessary plastics, James Bruggers, Inside Climate News, 3/21/23
What does it take to get ‘forever chemicals’ out of drinking water? Big new systems that you might have to help pay for: A rule proposed March 14 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could drive water systems to install filtration equipment at thousands of locations, nationwide, Frank Kummer, Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/23/23
Scientists 'hack' photosynthesis and discover novel route for renewables: "At first, we thought we'd made a mistake: it took a while for us to convince ourselves that we'd done it,” Sade Agard, Interesting Engineering, 3/22/23
.Forget geoengineering. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. Right now. Pie-in-the-sky fantasies of carbon capture and geoengineering are a way for decision-makers to delay taking real action, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian, 3/24/23
Samples from asteroid Ryugu contain one of the building blocks of RNA: The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft brought back samples from Ryugu in 2020, and an analysis of a tiny portion of those samples has revealed key ingredients for life, Leah Crane, New Scientist, 3/21/23
One Great Shot: Seeking Shelter in the Arms of a Jellyfish: Amid the feeding frenzy of a plankton bloom, juvenile fish stick close to their jellyfish friends, Henley Spiers, Hakai, 3/23/23
Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that
bottle of pop.
Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.
Open the door, then close it behind you.
—from “From Wandering the Earth In Its Human Feet,” Joy Harjo
Health and Wellness
Deadly fungal infection rapidly spreading in U.S. health facilities, Fenit Nirappil, Washington Post, 3/20/23: “Fungal infections from the yeast strain known as Candida Auris tripled nationally from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021.”
Canada: scientists discover new method to break down toxic ‘forever chemicals:” University of British Columbia researchers develop silica-based material with ability to absorb wider range of harmful chemicals, Leyland Cecco, The Guardian, 3/22/23
A winter of the mind: how to escape survival mode: For many of us, it has been a cold and traumatic year. But, as one reader found, difficult times can lead to new and revolutionary ways of thinking, Moya Sarner, The Guardian, 3/20/23: “Learning how to attend to the negative feelings and movements within one’s body and mind, and learning to make changes accordingly that move you through to the next stage rather than regressing, is crucial.”
Psychedelic brew ayahuasca’s profound impact revealed in brain scans: Study gives most advanced picture yet of DMT compound’s effect on advanced functions such as imagination, Ian Sample, The Guardian, 3/20/23
Tattoos Do Odd Things to the Immune System: When you stick ink-filled needles into your skin, your body’s defenders respond accordingly. Scientists aren’t sure if that’s good or bad for you, Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 3/22/23
COVID-19 death rates varied dramatically across US, major analysis finds: Arizona had the highest death rates while Hawaii had the lowest, Dr. Alaa Diab, Dr. Keerthana Kumar, ABC News, 3/23/23
Some people presume to be hopeful
when there is no evidence for hope,
to be happy when there is no cause.
Let me say now, I’m with them.
—from “For the Bird Singing before Dawn,” Kim Stafford
Birds
Mapping Migration: Researchers release first comprehensive map of migratory bird patterns in Eastern U.S., Lauren Bradford, UD Daily, 3/23/23
Birds sometimes hitch rides on ships—and it’s changing the way they migrate: Traveling across the ocean is a hard journey, but stowing away is pretty easy, Uti Eberle, Popular Science, 3/21/23
Extinct 'Lord of The Rings' eagles had a 10-foot wingspan and probably could have carried a hobbit: Fossils uncovered in Australia belong to a newfound species of extinct eagle that was big enough to pick up hobbit-size prey, like the fictional giant eagles in “Lord of the Rings,” Harry Baker, LiveScience, 3/21/23
In last week’s issue this story: This crow is ‘very intelligent’ — and it’s struggling to survive in the wild: prompted Tom Peek in Hawai’i to write: Cath and I met Amy, the researcher mentioned in the story, and her colleague last November, when they were working in our neighborhood with their ʻio recording.
The recording was so lifelike that we walked down to the road to see if we could spot the hawk and discovered the San Diego Zoo researchers with their speaker. We had heard that artificial call and, simultaneously, a real one from the deep forest on the makai side of our property. —Tom Peek, author of the forthcoming book, Mauna Kea: A Novel of Hawai'i
Birthdays today: Robert Frost, Joseph Campbell, Erica Jong, Tennessee Williams, and Gregory Corso. Quite a day for birthing writers…
Spring is coming on fast. Times are as weird as ever and crazy is in the air. We are biological organisms and the onset of better weather is always uplifting to our spirits. I hope you feel it too. We will get through this together. Much love from here—David