The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 148, March 12, 2023 (V3 #43) Daylight Savings Time edition.
I never wanted nostalgia. We used to know each other,
remember? Dry. Humid. Dry. Humid.
Not. Humid. Dry. Humid. Dry. Humid. Dry.
Why did we have to pry open our patch of dirt?
—from “Summer, You’re a Boneyard,” Gustavo Hernandez
Books and Culture
‘It stunned me that people had to live like this,’Baldwin Lee on his rediscovered images of the deep south: In the 1980s an unknown photographer from New York travelled through the US capturing life in black communities. Now these mostly unseen pictures have made him a star, Sean O’Hagan, The Guardian, 3/11/23: “I never wanted my photographs to be the equivalent of someone on a soapbox, shouting. I wanted them to be open ended and subject to the many different interpretations that people brought to them.”
What Are We Protecting Children from by Banning Books? Reading the titles that have been challenged and removed from public-school libraries across the country, Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 3/10/11: “A number of grownups apparently feel emboldened to spend their lives playing peekaboo with reality. Their kids may not have that luxury.”
Adults complained about a teen theater production and the show's creators stepped in, Elizabeth Blair, NPR, 3/9/23: "I guarantee you that there's someone at this school who is maybe being raised by gay parents but, definitely, more than one person at this school is gay or lesbian or bisexual and the message that this sends to them, that that is not ... family friendly is toxic and harmful and kind of abusive."
How a rabbit god became an icon for Taiwan’s gay community: Temple in Taipei is believed to be the only Taoist site set up to revere rabbit god Tu’er Shen, a significant symbol for LGBTQI people in Taiwan and China, Helen Davidson, Chi Hui Lin, The Guardian, 3/7/23
When Johnny Cash Kissed Me: How the Country Star Changed My Life: On Finding Yourself Beyond the Work You've Done, Louisa Young, LitHub, 3/10/23: “I didn’t want to ooh and aah on paper about John Steinbeck and Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. I wanted to be them. Artist. Creator. I wanted to produce the work that would make other people ooh and aah. Work that would last.” Book: Twelve Months and a Day
My Royal Quiet Deluxe, Matthew Zapruder, Paris Review, 3/7/23: “The combination of gathering lines constantly by hand and returning to them to see what emerged was both elongated and focused by using the typewriter. Plus it was just fun to pound the keys hard and hear the satisfying clacking sound. I was, at last, working.”
Bookmobiles have a new mission: delivering banned books, H.L.M. Lee, WBUR, 3/7/23: “Today’s rebel bookmobiles serve a vital role by bringing the perspectives and experiences of other, different lives, pushing against efforts to deny their existence.”
It’s Complicated: Deconstructing Nina Simone, CS Team, Culture Sonar, 3/7/23: “Simone gifted the world with one of the richest music catalogs out there.”
You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
—from “Mississippi Goddam,” by Nina Simone
Politics
Boycott Walgreens, a Pharmacy that Stands with Anti-Abortion Extremists Against the Rights of Women, Michael Moore, Newsletter, 3/5/23
How Walgreens supports the anti-abortion movement, Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, Popular Information, 3/6/23
The Expanding Battle Over the Abortion Pill: Republican state attorneys general are threatening action against pharmacies that dispense it, as a federal lawsuit challenges the F.D.A.’s authority to approve it, Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 3/12/23
The Eradication Of An "Ism:” The creeping illiberalism of the anti-woke right, Andrew Sullivan, Weekly Dish, 3/10/23: “…(the) intensifying push to “ban” ideas like CRT, or “ban” performances by drag queens in front of children, or “ban” certain concepts from being taught in universities is a sign of a flagging faith in liberal democracy, rather than a sign of its renewal.”
Something Broke! The Silicon Valley Bank Failure - How tech hubris and low interest rates combined to produce a big mess, Adam Tooze, Chartbook, 3/11/23
From wine country to London, bank’s failure shakes worldwide, Stan Choe, Bobby Caina Calvan, APNews, 3/12/23: “It was called Silicon Valley Bank, but its collapse is causing shockwaves around the world.” Ed: We will be hearing a lot more about this soon. It will affect us all.
Why was there a run on Silicon Valley Bank? And how will this affect startups and the financial system? Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 3/10/23: “93% of SVB’s deposits were not FDIC insured. So SVB was vulnerable to a classic, textbook bank run.”
Did Jared & Trump Sell Out America for Billions while the Media Looked the Other Way? Have we just watched as Jared & Trump walked away with billions after selling out Yemen, Khashoggi, and the United States? With virtually no questions from the mainstream media or Congress? Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 3/10/23. Ed. Note: this article enraged me all over again.
A Troubling Sign for 2024: The midterms were a welcome reprieve for democracy. But the story of Bill Gates, an Arizona election official, suggests that we might not be so lucky in next year’s presidential election, Barton Gellman, The Atlantic, 3/7/23
How to Help Ukrainians, a Year In, A range of organizations and causes you can support, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 3/6/23: “In the United States, a very effective NGO devoted to all forms of assistance to Ukraine is Razom.”
How Are Trump Supporters Still Doing This? It’s past time to stop treating Trump like a normal politician, Tom Nichols, Atlantic, 3/6/23: “How, in 2023, after all we know about this man and his attacks on our government and our Constitution, do we engage the people who heard that speech and support Donald Trump’s candidacy?”
How the Right is Turning Political Paranoia into “Parents’ Rights;” From activist mothers to MAGA stars, just about everyone at last week’s CPAC was awash in fears that satanism, marxism, and “transgenderism” are creeping into schools nationwide. “They’re trying to erase us as women and moms,” says the president of Moms for America, and “steal the hearts and minds of our children,” Caleb Ecarma, Vanity Fair, 3/8/23
The GOP’s coordinated national campaign against trans rights, explained: Republicans are unleashing a torrent of anti-trans bills at the state level ahead of 2024, Nicole Narea, Fabiola Cineas, Vox, 3/10/23
What We Talk About When We Talk About Trans Rights: Masha Gessen on the public discourse over trans identity, the real reasons for the culture war over gender, and how well-meaning people can do better, David Remnick, New Yorker, 3/11/23
Florida school staffer and book reviewer resigns after calling book about lesbians ‘morally damning.’ Rebekah Sager, Daily Kos, 3/9/23
Why is Rupert Murdoch’s Lie Machine Poisoning American Democracy? If our media and body politic are infected with a cancer it’s time to isolate it so it can’t further harm our democracy and, by extension, the democracies of the world, Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 3/9/23: “What country in its right mind would allow a foreign entity to come into their country, set up a major propaganda operation, and then use it to so polarize that nation that its very government suffers a violent assault and its democracy finds itself at a crossroads?”
Inside the “Private and Confidential” Conservative Group That Promises to “Crush Liberal Dominance:” Leonard Leo, a key architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, is now the chairman of Teneo, a group that aims to influence all aspects of American politics and culture, Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein, Nick Surgey, ProPublica, 3/9/23: “A Federalist Society for everything.” Ed. note: this guy is very dangerous to all of us.
Does America Die Gradually, Then Suddenly? January 6th was a rehearsal; they're now planning 2024. Coups quietly build to an explosive tipping point, then suddenly appear as a fait accompli…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 3/7/23
Science & Environment
Seeding Hope: They set out to save rainforests — and stumbled upon a way to help prevent the world’s next deadly pandemic, Caroline Chen, ProPublica, 3/7/23: “Founded in 2006 to save rainforests and combat climate change, Health In Harmony may have stumbled upon a way to help prevent the next pandemic.”
Frans de Waal on Chimpanzee—and Human—Politics: Yascha Mounk and Frans de Waal discuss how studying the (other) great apes can help us better understand human behavior and society, Yascha Mounk, Persuasion, 3/11/23: “What is different about humans is that it's the scale of our societies.”
Scientists discover enzyme that can turn air into energy, unlocking potential new energy source: A relative of the tuberculosis bacterium has long been known to convert hydrogen from the air into electricity. Now, scientists have discovered how, Ben Turner, LiveScience, 3/8/23
The Scientific Breakthrough that Could Make Batteries Last Longer, Creation of a new superconductor could also help realize efficient electrical grids and improve nuclear fusion, Aylin Woodward, Wall Street Journal, 3/8/23 (Gift article)
These companies want to go beyond batteries to store energy: Physical energy storage could be a cheap and long-lasting way to stabilize the grid, Casey Crownhart, MIT Technology Review, 3/9/23
Think adding more fish to a lake makes for better fishing? Think again. Scientists turned 20 lakes into little laboratories. Fish stocking didn't make a dent in the fish population. Creating better habitat did, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 3/8/23
Mussels and Other Aquatic Animals Provide Critical Coastal Ecosystem Protections: A new study focusing on 750,000 acres of U.S. coastal areas finds that mollusks act as ecosystem engineers, helping sustain salt marshes in the face of climate change, Ken Best, Yale School of the Environment, 3/7/23
Why Saving the Whales Means Saving Ourselves: After decades of conservation efforts to protect whales, two recent books shed light on why they’re still threatened—and how we might change that, Kiley Bense, Inside Climate News, 3/11/23
Microplastics Are Polluting the Ocean at a Shocking Rate: Some 11 billion pounds of plastic particles are blanketing the surface alone. But a new study points to hope—if countries act now, Matt Simon, Wired, 3/8/23
Protecting sagebrush habitat can help wildlife and the climate: About 1.3 million acres of sagebrush habitat are lost each year to development and other threats, releasing stored carbon and contributing to climate change, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 3/7/23
Dry farming could help agriculture in the western U.S. amid climate change: Forgoing irrigation can save water and produce more flavorful fruits and vegetables, Katherine Kornei, Science News, 3/9/23
Unlocking secrets of the honeybee dance language – bees learn and culturally transmit their communication skills, James C. Nieh, The Conversation, 3/9/23: “Astonishingly, honeybees possess one of the most complicated examples of nonhuman communication. They can tell each other where to find resources such as food, water, or nest sites with a physical “waggle dance.””
After Centuries of Exploitation, Will Indigenous Communities in Biodiversity Hotspots Finally Get Their Due? At the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, some developed nations agreed to compensate and recognize the stewards of precious genetic plant resources, Mark Schapiro, Civil Eats, 3/7/23
To Protect Wildlife from Artificial Light, Look to the Moon: A proposed design for a Danish church looks to automatically adjust the building’s exterior lighting to the abundance of moonlight, Theo Nicitopoulos, Hakai, 3/10/23
The business case for reversing extinction: Biodiversity affects the global economy more than people realize, Ben Lamm, Fast Company, 3/9/23: “Species extinction impacts the economy in direct, indirect, and corollary ways.”
Simpler Math Predicts How Close Ecosystems Are to Collapse: By replacing thousands of equations with just one, ecology modelers can more accurately assess how close fragile environments are to a disastrous “tipping point,” Anna Gibbs, Quanta, 3/6/23
Trees in Themselves: The oldest trees prompt us to think about how embedded we are in time and could help us recalibrate our perspective on the geologic past, Verlyn Klinkenborg, NY Review of Books, 3/23/23 issue
Free online tool helps people identify tree species that will thrive in a warmer climate: The Climate Change Tree Atlas, developed by the USDA Forest Service, is a resource for selecting Eastern U.S. trees to use in tree planting and forest restoration projects, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 3/10/23. There is a Climate Change Atlas for birds too.
Meet the AI expert who says we should stop using AI so much: Meredith Broussard argues that the application of AI to deep-rooted social problems is already producing disastrous results, Tate Ryan-Mosley, MIT Technology Review, 3/10/23. Book: More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech
The World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket Is About to Launch: Relativity Space’s attempt to reach orbit heralds the increasing use of 3D printing in the space sector, Ramin Skibba, Wired, 3/10/23
Has the 3D printing revolution finally arrived? Car engines, bespoke medicines, organs for transplant, food, fashion and now even a whole street of houses… Is the all-conquering promise of 3D printing finally coming true? Tim Lewis, The Guardian, 3/12/23: “…in the next 10 years, you’re going to basically have seen it replace most of casting and extruding and stamping.”
you can rest
light as nothing
in the harbor
we will take it
and go on
—from “American Singer,” Matthew Zapruder
Health & Wellness
The science and politics of COVID natural immunity, Claire Donnelly, Meghna Chakrabarti, WBUR, 3/8/23: “More and more studies say yes — that natural immunity can be just as protective as vaccination.”
No One Knows if You Need Another Covid Booster: It’s cellular immunity, not antibodies, that probably protects against the coronavirus’s worst effects—and scientists haven’t worked out how long it lasts, Joanne Silberner, Wired, 3//9/23
Don’t forget to floss: the science behind dementia and the four things you should do to prevent it: A picture is emerging of a healthy lifestyle which is key to the condition’s prevention – exercise, being sociable, and looking after your ears, Ian Sample, The Guardian, 3/11/23: “Which single intervention could reduce dementia risk the most? Preventing hearing loss.”
Birds
Dusky tetraka: Joy as bird feared extinct spotted in Madagascar, Natasha Booty, BBC News, 3/2/23
In Bird Feeder Battles, Social Species are Featherweights: A new study finds ‘groupy and wimpy’ birds have a hard time fending off competition, but they can gain a boost among friends, Zoe Grueskin, Audubon, 3/9/23
It’s Time for a Flu Vaccine—for Birds: Avian influenza has killed millions of birds. Shots to prevent it already exist. Why isn’t the entire poultry industry using them? Maryn McKenna, Wired, 3/8/23
Praise their eyelids that close
and give rest
at the end of each long day.
Praise the work that goes on.
—from “The Sound of Their Names: for the Women of the 19th Amendment,” Ellen Bass
It’s been another crazy week, but what else is new? If you are tempted to feel overwhelmed, just take a few moments to breathe, listen to the birds wherever you are, read a poem, turn off your phone, be quiet. Breathe.
“Om Muni Muni Mahamuni Shakyamuniye Svaha Om.”
Much love to all. —David