The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 86, January 2, 2022 (V2 #34)
This tree has stood here for 500 years. Will it be sold for $17,500? Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, 12/30/21: “This mammoth tree plays an outsize role in the Tongass National Forest, which holds the equivalent of 9.9 billion tons of CO2 — nearly twice what the United States emits from burning fossil fuels each year.”
E.O. Wilson, 1929-2021, Obituary “It is a rare combination of good when an intellectual giant like Ed Wilson can leave a legacy of enormous scientific contributions with a memory trail of a kind, humble, generous man who had great exuberance for life.” –Paul Simon
“The frightened individual seeks for somebody or something to tie his self to; he cannot bear to be his own individual self any longer, and he tries frantically to get rid of it and to feel security again by the elimination of this burden: the self.”—Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom
“The primary conflict, I think, is between people whose interests are with already well-established economic activities, and those whose interests are with the emergence of new economic activities.” – Jane Jacobs, from The Economy of Cities
“Over the next 3-4 weeks, we are going to see the number of cases in this country rise so dramatically that we're gonna have a hard time keeping everyday life operating.”—Dr. Michael Osterholm
Politicking
The Illusion of Freedom, Chris Hedges, TruthDig, 12/27/2015: “Despair, powerlessness and hopelessness diminish the emotional and intellectual resilience needed to confront reality. Those cast aside cling to the entertaining forms of self-delusion offered by the ruling elites. This segment of the population is easily mobilized to “purge” the nation of dissenters and human “contaminants.” Totalitarian systems, including our own, never lack for willing executioners.”
Report spotlights massive GOP push to 'hijack elections in this country,’ Jake Johnson, Alternet, 12/25/21: “Compiled by the States United Democracy Center, Protect Democracy, and Law Forward, the new report identifies at least 262 bills in 41 states that—if enacted—would "interfere with election administration." More than 30 such measures have become law in 17 Republican-led states….But the report makes clear that the intensifying Republican attack on democracy reaches far beyond the legislative process. "The nature of the threat," the authors warn, "has metastasized beyond proposing or passing bills."”
‘Slow-motion insurrection’: How GOP seizes election power, Nicholas Ricciardi, APNews, 12/30/21: “In battleground states and beyond, Republicans are taking hold of the once-overlooked machinery of elections. While the effort is incomplete and uneven, outside experts on democracy and Democrats are sounding alarms, warning that the United States is witnessing a “slow-motion insurrection” with a better chance of success than Trump’s failed power grab last year.”
What Matters Most, Lucian V. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 12/31/21: “As we enter 2022, we face an implacable foe in a Republican Party bent on stealing what it cannot earn. Right-wingers are happy to reignite battles we thought we had won over bigotry and misogyny. They know what’s at stake. What matters most to us must be what matters most to them: winning. What kind of country we will be, and the way that we live our lives and our children will live theirs, depends on our votes and our dedication to the rule of law. Nothing else matters.”
‘Patriots’ are undermining American democracy: The people who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January don’t understand that nationalism is not the same as patriotism, Michael Harriot, The Guardian, 12/30/21
Republicans aim to sow outrage, Trump-style, with an eye on 2022 midterms: Republicans embrace the culture war battles Trump waged, as a strategy for winning back control of the House and Senate, Laren Gambino, The Guardian, 1/1/22
White supremacists are using an old playbook but so are the lawyers fighting them, Karen Dunn, Roberta A. Kaplan, Washington Post, 12/28/21: “We should not need lawsuits to remind us that violent bigotry and hate have no place in the United States. As a country, we can and must do better.”
Wampanoag, who helped Pilgrims survive, win rights to tribal lands: ‘It’s kind of unbelievable when you look at what was promised us and how it was taken,’ said a tribal educator, Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 12/31/21
Climate Ontologic
The Year in Climate Photos: From the president’s desk to protests and disasters around the world, photos showed climate change is always easy to see but sometimes hard to look at, Katelyn Weisbrod, Inside Climate News, 12/27/21
A Clean Industrial Revolution Is the Only Way to Hit Net Zero: Governments and companies around the world are finally acting to create a green economy and avoid climate catastrophe, Bill Gates, Wired, 12/27/21
A seed for all seasons: can ancient methods future-proof food security in the Andes? In Peru’s remote villages, farmers have used diverse crops to survive unpredictable weather for millennia. Now they are using this knowledge to adapt to the climate crisis, Dam Collyns, The Guardian, 12/25/21 Caption: Maize from Lares province near Cusco, where the crop has been grown for thousands of years.
The Lost Bayou Ramblers Get Lit: Louis Michot, the co-founder of the Cajun-singing punk band, plays a set from the Solar Roller, his own sun-powered stage, and discusses how solar power can save Louisiana, Jeanie Riess, New Yorker, 12/27/21
‘Net-zero is not enough’: A new book explains how to end fossil fuels: Sociologist Holly Buck wants you to know that fossil fuel phaseout isn’t a "fringe" idea, Emily Pontecorvo, Grist, 12/22/21: You might want to buy the book: Ending Fossil Fuels.
2021's top 10 global weather disasters cost more than $170 billion — $20 billion more than last year, an aid group says. It blames climate change, CBS News, 12/27/21
This Company Has a Way to Replace Plastic in Clothing: Natural Fiber Welding uses an innovative process to treat cotton and make it behave more like synthetic fibers, Harris Quinn, Wired, 12/28/21
YouTube movie teaches children how to protect the Earth: ‘Bean & Widge Go to the Park’ uses kid-friendly humor to introduce sustainability concepts, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 12/29/21
The Quest to Trap Carbon in Stone—and Beat Climate Change: On a barren lava plateau in Iceland, a new facility is sucking in air and stashing the carbon dioxide in rock. The next step: Build 10,000 more, Vince Beiser, Wired, 12/28/21
Our top 5 good news stories of 2021: It's not all doom and gloom, EHN Staff, The Daily Climate, 12/27/21
Looming mass extinction could be biggest 'since the dinosaurs,' says WWF: More plants and animals than ever before are on a global list of threatened species, with the World Wildlife Fund Germany warning that more than 1 million species could go extinct within the next 10 years, DW.com, 12/29/21
Climate change: Storm clouds gather after COP26, Matt McGrath, BBC News, 12/29/21: “Is the progress that was made at the COP26 Glasgow climate summit already in jeopardy because of challenges in the year ahead?”
2021 Was a Huge Missed Opportunity on Climate Action: The pandemic should have been a wake-up call—instead, emissions have climbed once more. Here's how the US could have seized the opportunity, Matt Simon, Wired, 12/27/21
African Voices Must Lead the Global Climate Conversation: The world is finally waking up to the impact the climate crisis is having on the continent, Vanessa Nakate, Wired, 12/29/21
Justin Chang, LA Times, on the movie Don’t Look Up: "Nothing about the foolishness and outrageousness of what the movie shows us—no matter how virtuosically sliced and diced by McKay's characteristically jittery editor, Hank Corwin—can really compete with the horrors of our real-world American idiocracy." (Ed. Note: You can watch this film on Netflix. It’s worth the investment of your time.)
Displacement
I take no
pleasure
in the
New Year
and bring
it closer
only to
examine
the length
of its teeth
—Beau Beausoleil
Pandemic – and Science
Tokyo researchers work toward 'dream' COVID-19 vaccine that gives protection for life, Osamu Tsukimori, Japan Times, 12/29/21: ““So if our vaccine’s efficacy lasted for even a year, two years or three years, that would translate to huge savings worth trillions of yen to the social infrastructure as a whole. The vaccine also has high cross-immunity to work against many variants, so these two things alone justify making this vaccine.””
They Were the Pandemic’s Perfect Victims: The pandemic killed so many dialysis patients that their total number shrunk for the first time in nearly half a century. Few people took notice, Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica, 12/28/21
After Vaccines: Where Covid Death Rates Have Risen, Bary Ritholtz, The Big Picture, 12/29/21 (Ed. Note, a smart analysis of a 12/28/21 NY Times article: “The virus is now responsible for a higher share of deaths from all causes for younger Americans and white Americans than it was before all adults were eligible for vaccines.”)
The pandemic has caused nearly two years of collective trauma. Many people are near a breaking point, Marisa Iati, Washington Post, 12/24/21
A new coronavirus vaccine heading to India was developed by a small team in Texas. It expects nothing in return, Adam Taylor, Washington Post, 12/30/21: “…the Texas Children’s Hospital vaccine, which is called Corbevax, is being shared patent-free.”
Brains on a chip: Why startups are combining cells and silicon: Australia's Cortical Labs is working on 'holy grail' of AI: general intelligence, Sandy Ong, Nikkei Asia, 12/31/21
Antibiotic use on farms threatens pandemic ‘much bigger than Covid’, campaigners warn: Preventative use of antibiotics on farm animals will be banned in the EU from January; now the UK is thinking about whether to follow suit, Holly Bancroft, Independent (UK), 12/29/21
How to purge risky chemicals from your beauty products: Eliminating endocrine disruptors is harder than you might think, Paige Curtis, Vox, 12/30/21
Book-ish
'Madness': Oklahoma Bill Would Empower Parents to Remove Books From School Libraries, Julia Conley, Common Dreams, 12/29/21: “Under Senate Bill 1142, introduced earlier this month by state Sen. Rob Standridge, just one parent would have to object to a book that includes discussion of "sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, or gender identity" and other related themes in order to begin the process of removal. Upon receiving a written request to remove a book, a school district would have 30 days to eliminate all copies of the material from circulation.” (Ed. Note: First they come for the books, next they will come for the writers…)
Still looking for that picture book you loved as a kid? Try asking Instagram, Rachel Treisman, NPR, 12/27/21: "I feel like so much of social media is negative these days, and people turn on each other so easily," she says. "I love how in general on my feed it seems really positive, and people are very supportive and encouraging, and they just love talking about these things with each other. So I think it's a little escape, maybe, from whatever else is going on in their lives."
Ghosts of the Avant-Garde: On Johanna Drucker’s “Iliazd: A Meta-Biography of a Modernist” Ross Wilson, LA Review of Books, 12/20/21: “Iliazd: A Meta-Biography of a Modernist is a remarkable account of the life, work, and, in some important respects, afterlife of Iliazd, as he liked to be known. … Drucker’s engaging account will, one hopes, bring Iliazd’s work to the prominence it deserves but has, up to now, only rarely achieved.”
Ron Silliman: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch], Best American Poetry, 12/26/21:
Hard dreams. The moment at which you recognize that your own death lies in wait somewhere
within your body. A lone ship defines the horizon. The rain is not safe to drink.
(from the poem “You—I”)
Book Review: Tracing the origins of today’s ultraconservatives, Randall J. Stephens, Washington Post, 12/31/21: “But what if this kind of ultraconservatism, from Birchism to Trumpism, is an essential part of modern American conservatism? And what if such extremism is not a bug but a feature of the Republican Party? These are some of the critical questions that John S. Huntington addresses in his thoughtful and engaging Far-Right Vanguard: The Radical Roots of Modern Conservatism.”
January 1, 2022, is Public Domain Day: Works from 1926 are open to all, as is a cornucopia of recorded music: an estimated 400,000 sound recordings from before 1923! Duke University Center for the Public Domain.
January 2 literary birthdays:
John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans
Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Trilogy (and many other great books)
Robert Nathan, Portrait of Jenny
“There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.” —Zora Neale Hurston (born January 7, 1903), from Their Eyes Were Watching God
Astronomer and Poet Rebecca Elson’s Spare, Stunning Meditation on the Mystery of Being: The wonder of wading into the black lake boiling with light, Maria Popova, The Marginalian, 12/30/21
FUTURA VECCHIA, NEW YEAR’S EVE
Returning, like the Earth
To the same point in space,
We go softly to the comfort of destruction,
And consume in flames
A school of fish,
A pair of hens,
A mountain poplar with its moss.
A shiver of sparks sweeps round
The dark shoulder of the Earth,
Frisson of recognition,
Preparation for another voyage,
And our own gentle bubbles
Float curious and mute
Towards the black lake
Boiling with light,
Towards the sharp night
Whistling with sound.
—Rebecca Elson, from A Responsibility to Awe
Bird Brains
How audio recorders can help pinpoint critical bird habitat: Data gathered from sound recordings can help solar developers avoid building on sites used by migratory birds and threatened species, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 12/30/21
The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem: How online sales of highly regulated, super-toxic rodenticides exploit gaps in the law and imperil wildlife, Chris Sweeney, Audubon (Winter 2021)
Arctic birds connect the world: Biologging tech tracking of nearctic seabirds surprise scientists with diverse migratory paths from shared breeding site, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Science Daily, 12/21/21: “Using telemetry to solve some mysteries of three related seabird species — the pomarine jaeger, parasitic jaeger and long-tailed jaeger -- scientists discovered they took different paths across four oceans from a shared central Canadian high Arctic nesting location.”
“Hargila” Film Documents The Greater Adjutant, World’s Rarest Stork, Mark Devokaitis, All About Birds, 12/21/21
I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth, now
Just give me some truth, now
—John Lennon, “Gimme Some Truth”
“Fearlessness is what love seeks. Love as craving is determined by its goal, and this goal is freedom from fear… Such fearlessness exists only in the complete calm that can no longer be shaken by events expected of the future… Hence the only valid tense is the present, the Now.” —Hannah Arendt, from Love and Saint Augustine.
I do not believe in making resolutions for the new year. Why not make them anytime you feel the need? Anyway, Time flows as it will, and as with our experience of reality, it’s very likely not linear at all, and more complex than we believe it to be. Human minds are most often reductive machines, aren’t they? Why can’t they instead be expansive? So if there is anything to resolve today, it is to explore and understand the vast breadth of experience that our minds enable.
Best wishes to all and warm regards during the challenging weeks ahead. Thanks to those who have written and sent news, articles, poems and suggestions. You make this effort worthwhile.
Happy and Healthy New Year David. I enjoy your Weird Times in these weird times.
Thank you Susan! All best to you as well. Weird times indeed.