The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 211, May 26, 2024 (V5 #3)
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.—from “For the Fallen,” Laurence Binyon
Books, Music, Art Culture
Art Meets Life: Beth Parker on Searching for Red Grooms’ Mysterious Sculpted Bookstore: An Auspicious Journey to the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, Beth Parker, LitHub, 5/20/24: “The Bookstore is truly unique, a book-lovers’ dream, and absolutely worth visiting in person.”
Caleb Carr, author of historical bestseller ‘The Alienist,’ dies at 68: After a troubled childhood among Beat generation writers, he explored the dark side of human nature as a novelist and historian, Matt Schudel, Washington Post, 5/25/24: “I write out of outrage. I’m afraid of what happens the day I wake up and find I’m no longer angry about anything.”
The Secrets of Suspense: We love churning apprehension in fiction; we hate it in life. But understanding the most fundamental technique of storytelling can teach us something about being alive, Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 5/20/24: “As long as the future remains opaque, it will also remain frightening and exhilarating, the repository of our greatest fears and wildest dreams.”
The Uncertain Future of the Yellow School Bus: Amid driver shortages and a dwindling ridership, the role of the bus is changing, Lora Kelley, The Atlantic, 5/24/24: “The bus is a liminal site: Bus time is part of the school day, but it’s not class time. Students gather together, but they have less structure, and there’s less of a focus on academics. This freedom makes the bus worth looking at in full, as a meaningful, rich space for kids in America.”
What the NFT Phenomenon Tells Us About the Monetary and Creative Value of Art: Zachary Small Explores the Intersection of New Technologies, Financial Speculation and Artistic Creation, Zachary Small, LitHub, 5/22/24: “The requisite struggle to bind art and money together into a single concept—the NFT—provoked the most primal feelings of greed, vanity, doubt, and revenge.”
Artificial Creativity: How AI teaches us to distinguish between humans, art, and industry, Douglas Rushkoff, Rushkoff Newsletter, 5/22/24: “…we can still unleash all sorts of new creative, playful experiences for our audiences - not by using AI to simulate the artistic media of the past, but by crafting accessible, transparent, and direct experiences of artificial intelligence itself.”
Media Companies Are Making a Huge Mistake With AI: News organizations rushing to absolve AI companies of theft are acting against their own interests, Jessica Lessin, The Atlantic, 5/24/24: “publishers willing to roll over this way aren’t just failing to defend their own intellectual property—they are also trading their own hard-earned credibility for a little cash from the companies that are simultaneously undervaluing them and building products quite clearly intended to replace them.”
Gay pride and patriotism, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 5/21/24: “Patriotism isn’t a right; it is a privilege that is born in the heart. Pride isn’t just about a lifestyle or sexual identity. Pride is about what we all gain when we are free and can celebrate that freedom together, as individuals and as citizens of our great country. Pride is a dish best served warm, and from the heart. I hope you will join us as we celebrate Pride Month together.”
‘It became a beacon of hope’: the incredible story of Stax Records: A new docuseries traces the highs and lows of the Memphis record label, soaring with major acts like Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes but a victim of both capitalism and racism, Jim Farber, The Guardian, 5/20/24: “Stax has a funk and groove and southern flavor that has found its way into all of the music that followed.”
‘I thought I was going to drown Otis Redding!’ Patti LaBelle at 80 on soul, sex, survival and superstardom: She is still touring seven months a year – and loving it. The legendary singer discusses smoking, swimming, sweet potato pie and her phenomenally famous friends: Elton, Otis, Laura Nyro and the Stones, Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, 5/23/24: “I have about 55,000 big hits left in me!”
“Purple Rain” At 40, Ellen Fagan, Culture Sonar, 5/21/24: “Happy anniversary to Purple Rain, an album so badass that it will be on playlists forever. It was Prince’s first to top the Billboard Charts, scored three Grammy Awards, and is one of the best-selling albums ever. Purple Rain is a masterwork that will live on.” “Purple Rain”
‘My songs spread like herpes’: why did satirical genius Tom Lehrer swap worldwide fame for obscurity? In the 1950s and 60s, his songs stunned and delighted listeners with their irreverence, wit and nihilism. Then he gave it all up to teach mathematics. Lehrer is still alive at 96 – so I went in search of answers, Francis Beckett, The Guardian, 5/22/24: “Tom Lehrer is a prodigiously talented man who has no interest at all in money for its own sake, or in money to wield power.”
First get down on your knees
Fiddle with your rosary beads
Bow your head with great respect
Then genuflect, genuflect, genuflect
—from “Vatican Rag,” Tom Lehrer
Politics, Economics, Technology
Google goes bananums for AI, Mark Hurst, Creative Good, 5/24/24: “All I can hope is that tech companies, some day, will return to the simple question that should drive all tech development: how do we create something good? Not for a short-term stock bump, not to follow the latest fad, and certainly not to support, as Meredith Whittaker put it a few days ago, a ‘mass surveillance business model’ that actively exploits users.”
Big tech has distracted world from existential risk of AI, says top scientist: Max Tegmark argues that the downplaying is not accidental and threatens to delay, until it’s too late, the strict regulations needed, Alex Hern, The Guardian, 5/25/24: “…the only way you can get safety first is if the government puts in place safety standards for everybody.”
How To Put a Country Back Together: Here’s what young people need to know if they are to fix our social fabric, Eboo Patel, The Conversation, 5/22/24: “We need a sector of our society to model pluralism, and prepare leaders who can help others apply its key principles. I think higher education is that sector.”
The Texas School District That Provided the Blueprint for an Attack on Public Education: When conservative activists began waging battle against diversity plans, some had a much bigger target in mind, Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 5/25/24: “[Christopher Rufo’s] invented controversies were just the battering ram for a full-scale sacking and looting of public education.”
Revealed: the extremist Maga lobbying group driving far-right Republican policies: Documents show the Conservative Partnership Institute is pushing its far-right agenda at events involving GOP members, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, 5/23/24: “CPI appears to be particularly closely wedded to the hard-right House Freedom caucus.”
Scenes From a MAGA Meltdown: Inside the “America First” Movement’s War Over Democracy: Across the country, the Republican Party’s rank-and-file have turned on the GOP establishment. In Michigan, this schism broke the party — and maybe democracy itself, Andy Kroll, ProPublica, 5/22/24: “The most important fault line in the party now is democracy itself. Today’s Republican insurgents believe democracy has been stolen, and they don’t trust the ability of democratic processes to restore it.”
Jim Crow laws are being replaced by Sam Alito laws, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 5/23/24: “With this Supreme Court, it is no longer one step forward, two steps back. When it comes to race on this court, the United States has been slammed into reverse.”
We’re letting Trump distract us from his corrupt, anti-climate agenda: There is a strange, substantive vacuum in this campaign cycle, E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, 5/19/24: “The politics of spectacle that Trump excels at is the enemy of a politics of substance.”
Corporations Are Weaponizing Free Speech To Wreck The World: Companies are exploiting the First Amendment to undermine rules that protect consumers and deter corruption, Katherine Li, The Lever, 5/23/24: “Courts have the responsibility to remain skeptical and hold the line, or else the First Amendment would become unrecognizable.”
Memo to Joe: Fight a Climate Election: Make it a hot summer for Trump too, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 5/23/24: “Trump will take away your rights. He will take away your democracy. And he will take away the planet you’ve known.”
The Supreme Scheme: How Alito & Thomas Are Fueling the Ongoing Trump Coup: Why both Thomas — whose bribe-taking in exchange for his votes on Citizens United and other cases is well documented — and his rightwing buddy Sam Alito must resign or face impeachment...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 5/20/24
Alito Writes Again, Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, 5/24/24: “We need a court that we have confidence in, not because we expect them to always rule the way we, as individuals, want them to, but because we need to have confidence when they don’t that they are acting in a fair manner and doing justice.”
The odds, the stakes and the scariest media news I saw all week: On the great divide in how Americans get their news and how it affects their political views, Margaret Sullivan, American Crisis, 5/24/24: “Millions of Americans are badly under-informed, and some of them vote.”
Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden, Lauren Aratani, The Guardian, 5/22/24: “55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.
49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.
49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.”
Indifference is strangling American democracy, Steve Schmidt, The Warning, 5/22/24: “Indifference is strangling American democracy and tearing at the fabric that binds us together. It must be opposed. It must be stopped. Donald Trump has been perfectly clear about what is coming, but apparently the American people cannot see it and cannot hear it.”
How liberal democracy might lose the 21st century: A scary little theory about information and freedom, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 5/22/24: “The basic idea is that when information is costly, liberal democracy wins because it gathers more and better information than closed societies, but when information is cheap, negative-sum information tournaments sap an increasingly large portion of a liberal society’s resources.”
Liberalism As a Way of Life: An interview with political theorist Alexandre Lefebvre, whose important new book offers a comprehensive, spiritual defense of liberalism against its enemies and opponents, Damon Linker, Notes from the Middle Ground, 5/22/24: “The thesis of my book is that most religious nones should identify liberalism as the source of their values: not just of their political opinions, but of who they are through and through. Liberalism is the broad tradition that may well underlie who so many of us are in all walks of life, from family to the workplace, from friendship to enmity, from humor to outrage, and everything in between.”
Israel Policy Could Cost Biden the White House—and Us Democracy: In an election as close as this one, every vote counts—and Biden is bleeding youth support over Israel. It’s not too late. But it’s getting there, Yusef Munayyer, The New Republic, 5/20/24
Most Israelis dislike Netanyahu, but support the war in Gaza – an Israeli scholar explains what’s driving public opinion, Arie Perlager, The Conversation, 5/23/24: “The brutal Oct. 7 murders and the extermination of entire communities in southern Israel left Israelis feeling shocked, vulnerable and insecure. The attacks reminded Israelis that the country faces existential threats, which they believe need to be eliminated in any way possible.”
U.S. silent as global condemnation of Israel’s Rafah offensive grows: The Biden administration maintains that Israel’s invasion of the southern Gazan city is “limited,” despite an International Court of Justice order and a worsening humanitarian crisis, Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, 5/25/24
It seems to me that I should always be happier elsewhere
than where I happen to be, and this question of moving
is one that I am continually talking over with my soul
—from “Petits Poemes en Prose,” Charles Baudelaire, trans. by Arthur Symons
Science, Environment
Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe: Decades ago, Kris Hansen showed 3M that its PFAS chemicals were in people’s bodies. Her bosses halted her work. As the EPA now forces the removal of the chemicals from drinking water, she wrestles with the secrets that 3M kept from her and the world, Sharon Lerner, ProPublica, 5/20/24
How cockroaches came to rule the world: A team of scientists has found that, without humans, the most pervasive species of cockroach probably wouldn’t exist, Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 5/20/24: “We made the cockroach. The species branched off from its closest cousin only about 2,100 years ago — a blink in evolutionary time — and is adapted entirely to living in dwellings alongside humans.”
Earth’s Subduction May Have Been Triggered by the Same Event That Formed the Moon: The giant impact that formed the Moon may also have led to extrastrong mantle plumes that enabled the first subduction event, kick-starting Earth’s unique system of sliding plates, Rachel Fritts, Eos, 5/20/24
Migratory freshwater fish populations ‘down by more than 80% since 1970:’ ‘Catastrophic’ global decline due to dams, mining, diverting water and pollution threatens humans and ecosystems, study warns, Phoebe Weston, The Guardian, 5/21/24
The World Is Ignoring the Other Deadly Kind of Carbon: Not only is black carbon terrible for human health, but ever-fiercer wildfires are covering the Arctic with the dark particles, accelerating melting, Matt Simon, Wired, 5/21/24: “Fire has been a natural part of these ecosystems for thousands and thousands of years. The problem is that we’re seeing climate-warming-induced intensification of fires well above sort of historical norms, or even what we’ve seen in the paleo-record.”
Alaskan rivers are turning orange. Climate change could be to blame: Climate change is likely causing dozens of river in Alaska to flow orange, and it could be disastrous for the state, researchers say, Anumita Kaur, Washington Post, 5/24/24: “Researchers said the changes could be the result of melting permafrost — propelled by climbing temperatures — which released naturally occurring sulfide minerals into the water. When these minerals, including iron, slip into the water, they react with oxygen and effectively rust, turning clear streams bright orange.”
Giant Heaps of Plastic Are Helping Vegetables Grow: Plastic allows farmers to use less water and fertilizer. But at the end of each season, they’re left with a pile of waste, John Gove, The Atlantic, 5/17/24: “Farmers have a few other options.”
Visible and Invisible Worlds: While our brains do not simply mirror our surroundings, animals—nonhuman and human—are exquisitely embedded, suspended, in nature’s energies, Peter Godfrey-Smith, NY Review of Books, 6/6/24 issue: “…what we perceive is a kind of simulation or model—not one imposed on us by some malevolent being but one we fashion ourselves.”
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
—from “To be of use,” Marge Piercy
Health, Wellness
Microplastics found in every human testicle in study: Scientists say discovery may be linked to decades-long decline in sperm counts in men around the world, Damian Carrington, The Guardian, 5/20/24: “Recent studies in mice have reported that microplastics reduced sperm count and caused abnormalities and hormone disruptions.”
What Happens in the Brain to Cause Depression? Drugs that target the neurotransmitter serotonin have long been prescribed to treat depression. Now the spotlight is turning to other aspects of brain chemistry. The neuropharmacologist John Krystal shares findings that are overturning our understanding of depression, Stephen Strogatz, Quanta, 523/24: “The more we learn about the biology of depression, the more we realize that depression is a biology that involves many, many, many different cell types in the brain. And it’s linked to processes that contribute to disease in the entire body.”
Animals self-medicate with plants − behavior people have observed and emulated for millennia, Adrienne Mayor, The Conversation, 5/24/24: “No one knows how animals sense which plants cure sickness, heal wounds, repel parasites or otherwise promote health. Are they intentionally responding to particular health crises? And how is their knowledge transmitted? What we do know is that we humans have been learning healing secrets by watching animals self-medicate for millennia.”
The US food industry has long buried the truth about their products. Is that coming to an end? The FDA is developing front-of-package labels that corporations may have to start printing as early as 2027 - Ultra-processed foods are ultra bad for you, Cecilia Nowell, The Guardian, 5/21/24: “The food industry is drawing heavily on the same playbook that the tobacco industry used to oppose regulation”
Birds
thru birdstart
wing drip
weed-drift
of the soft
and serious -
water
—from “My Life by Water,” Lorine Niedecker
The Spring Bird Vortex: Through the magic doorway to Birdland, Margaret Atwood, In the Writing Burrow, 5/21/24: “When you think of an eight year, think of building, doing and creating. Think of unlocking your personal power. Think of razing down obstacles through will, and will alone.”
Counting Calories for Seabirds: Calculating birds’ daily energy needs provides new details about the lives of extinct species—and may inform conservation for those at risk today, Rebecca Heisman, Hakai, 5/23/24: “By drawing on data previously collected on a diversity of seabirds, Dunn and her colleagues created formulas that scientists can apply to any seabird species.”
Bald eagles nearly died out. What can we learn from their return to the southern Great Lakes? The pesticide DDT nearly wiped out North America’s bald eagles. Communities, scientists and politicians worked hard to bring this symbolic bird back from the brink, Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal, 5/21/24
Crows Rival Human Toddlers in Counting Skills: Counting crows proclaim “caw, caw, caw, caw” when staring at the number four, Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 5/23/24
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
thank you we are saying and waving
dark though it is
—from “Thanks,” W.S. Merwin
Book News
Tom Peek’s Mauna Kea: A Novel of Hawaii was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer award and received an Honorable Mention award for fiction.
Every week while I read and respond to the news, I think about 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.
What we can do everyday matters and will continue to make a difference. We have the power to make change, just as we have the power to transform experience into art, to make magic with our hearts and inner beings.
So I will say again, as I do every week here, 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. We can get through this. Send messages and 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. Celebrate!
Love from here—David