The Weird Times

Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces

The Weird Times: Issue 50, April 25 2021

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” ― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Yes April baseball is just a tease filled with heartbreak.

I'm too old to go steady. —E. Ethelbert Miller

Facts are Pieces of a Puzzle, not the Puzzle Itself — Zeynep Tufekci

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Spring! and Another Earth Day

Seahorse Spotted In The Hudson River, Marking Yet Another Hopeful Sign Of Spring, Sidney Pereira, Gothamist, 4/18/21

"Seeing our first seahorse of the season is a sign that the River is starting to wake up after winter, with water temperature starting to get into the low 50's," the park's senior director of education and outreach, Tina Walsh, told us. "And in fact, since this first sighting, the team collected a second seahorse this past week on Wednesday!"

5 Surprising Ways to Help Save the Planet: What do an electronic turtle egg, an Arctic seed bank, and carbon-eating machines have in common? They’re helping us be optimistic this Earth Day, Matt Simon, Wired, 4/22/21

…we’re celebrating this year with five surprising solutions to environmental problems around the world. In the video below, yours truly joined WIRED creative engagement producer Paul Sarconi to talk about how electronic eggs can help protect sea turtles and how solar panels might save California’s water. We explore a burgeoning technology that sucks carbon right out of the atmosphere, and we tell the tale of how priceless seeds escaped Syria’s civil war by being frozen and brought back to life through gene banking. And because current events are so hot right now, we talk about President Joe Biden’s plan to enlist Americans in a Civilian Climate Corps and get them to work transforming the landscape.

After a year of pandemic life, how’s that for some good news?

Losses

Remembering Al Young, a California poet laureate, musician, teacher: Young died at 81, two years after suffering a stroke, Frances Dinskelspiel, Berkeleyside, 4/21/21

His poem, Who I Am In Twilight, is embedded in the Addison Street Poetry Walk, right in front of Freight & Salvage. Berkeley also proclaimed Feb. 5, 2013, as Al Young Day.

In 2007, during his term as poet laureate, Young traveled around California, reading his work in 40 rural communities in the Central Valley and mountain areas in 11 days, often accompanied by a musician. For Young, poetry and music, particularly jazz and blues, were intertwined. He frequently wrote while listening to music (he knew so much about music he was almost a music ethnologist, one friend said) and incorporated jazz rhythms into his poems. “He wedded poetry and music together,” said Sharon Coleman, a poet and instructor at Berkeley City College “He brought music to poetry in a very integral way.”

Young’s 2008 book, Something About the Blues: An Unlikely Collection of Poetry, included a CD of Young reciting his poems against a blues backdrop. It was one of a number of Young’s books that expressed his love of the blues and the inspiration he drew from the music.

My vinyl favorite Booker Little,

vintage, soothes me. He jars

our ears with trumpet joy and

stuff freed folks stash in cabinets.

Never one to make too much of

why we love and what, I love my

powers. I might put you in my will.

(from “Key to the Dollar Store,” Al Young)

Al Young, Michael McClure and Ishmael Reed at the 2013 SF Jazz Poetry Festival. Credit: Tennessee Reed.

Life, Death, and Renewal in the Campo Rupestre: In a little-known region of Brazil that calls to mind Tolkien’s Middle-earth, unique lifeforms have evolved to endure innumerable environmental challenges. Can they survive the country's latest era of deregulation? Augusto Gomes, BioGraphic, 4/22/21

The Campo Rupestre is among the oldest, harshest, most biodiverse, and most threatened ecosystems on Earth. While the grasslands comprise less than one percent of Brazil’s landmass, they hold more than 15 percent of the country’s plant species—almost 6,000 plant species are found there, 40 percent of which exist nowhere else. Animals, too: An average of four animal species per year were discovered there between 2005 and 2014. At least 26 new vertebrate species have been found: 11 frogs, eight lizards, four birds, two snakes, and one mammal. Eleven new arthropod species were described within a single decade. The area is also home to 162 fish species, 27 of which are found only in those mountains, 12 of which are threatened with extinction. There are more than a hundred frog and toad species there, 28 found nowhere else. The Campo Rupestre biome is, indeed, more diverse per square mile than the Amazon rainforest to its north and west. It is, writes Silveira, “a museum of biodiversity.”

Interstate water wars are heating up along with the climate, Robert Glennon, The Conversation, 4/19/21

Climate stresses are raising the stakes. Rising temperatures require farmers to use more water to grow the same amount of crops. Prolonged and severe droughts decrease available supplies. Wildfires are burning hotter and lasting longer. Fires bake the soil, reducing forests’ ability to hold water, increasing evaporation from barren land and compromising water supplies.

As a longtime observer of interstate water negotiations, I see a basic problem: In some cases, more water rights exist on paper than as wet water – even before factoring in shortages caused by climate change and other stresses. In my view, states should put at least as much effort into reducing water use as they do into litigation, because there are no guaranteed winners in water lawsuits.

A buff-tailed bumblebee forages on a head of red clover flowers. Eduardo E. Zattara

Research surprise unveils how common herbicide kills bees, Marc Heller, E&E News, 4/19/21

Many studies already claimed the nation's most-used weedkiller was lethal to bees, but new research indicates its much-maligned active ingredient — glyphosate — isn't to blame.

Instead, the culprit appears to be inert ingredients added to the herbicide, such as wetting agents called surfactants, according to researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Groups critical of pesticides, such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety, urged EPA to put new controls on the use of the ingredients, which often aren't disclosed on labels.

The future and the remotest beach in the world, Mark Hurst, Creative Good, 4/23/21

It feels more and more like we've passed a point of no return, as it's difficult to imagine any way out of what feels like seismic, irreversible change. The spread of digital technology is central, of course, but also the manufacturing of plastics and other disposables - and supply chains to deliver them all, as I wrote about recently - bringing about a dramatic transformation in the economy and the climate. It's hard to fit it all into one sentence: apps and algorithms and trash and plastic and billionaires and poverty and cyclones and floods and fires and droughts, all influenced or directly caused by a knotted-up global glop of technology, money, and power. Whatever this thing is, it's big, and it's accelerating.

RATATATAT: Quick Hits

Pesticide DDT linked to increased breast cancer risk generations after exposure: Groundbreaking study finds women whose grandmothers had high DDT exposure are more likely to be obese and have early menstruation—both breast cancer risk factors, Meg Wilcox, Environmental Health News, 4/15/21

The pollution plumes of North Pole: An oil refining chemical has infiltrated the water of a small Alaskan town, but families—many worried about health issues—are left with more questions than answers, Lois Parshley, Environmental Health News, 4/19/21

How to keep your brain healthy: The 7 things you should do every day. Keeping your brain in good shape will not only stave off mental decline, but can also improve your relationships and boost your well-being – and it's never too late to make a difference, James Goodwin, New Scientist, 4/14/21

The Nature You See in Documentaries Is Beautiful and False: Nature documentaries mislead viewers into thinking that there are lots of untouched landscapes left. There aren’t, Emma Maris, The Atlantic, 4/12/21

Infrastructure funding could be 'opportunity of a lifetime' to plug thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, Laura Legere and Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/19/21

TRUMP’S BIGGEST PROPAGANDA MACHINE DOESN’T BELIEVE ITS OWN LIES: “That’s what happens when people listen to us,” one OAN producer remembered thinking while watching the Capitol insurrection unfold, Charlotte Klein, Vanity Fair Hive, 4/18/21

Why the Chip Shortage Is So Hard to Overcome: Semiconductor producers are trying to increase output, but the small gains are unlikely to fix the shortfalls hampering production of everything from cars to home appliances to PCs, Eun-Young Jeong and Dan Strumpf, Wall Street Journal, 4/19/21

Deep Cleaning Isn’t a Victimless Crime: The CDC has finally said what scientists have been screaming for months: The coronavirus is overwhelmingly spread through the air, not via surfaces, Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, 4/13/21

Cities Confront Climate Challenge: How to Move from Gas to Electricity? Ending the use of fossil fuels to heat homes and buildings is a key challenge for cities hoping to achieve net-zero emissions. Nowhere is that more evident than in Philadelphia, where technical and financial hurdles and a reluctant gas company stand in the way of decarbonization, Jonathan Mingle, Yale e360, 4/20/21

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The After-Time

              (for Anna Thorn)

After my death take my poems

And use them for wood. May they

Give you warmth on cold nights.

May my poems provide you with light

And direction turning your compass

Towards goodness. Love the wood

For its beginnings, for the language

Of trees, offer prayers when my words

Turn to ash, speak them to mark 

Your way out of darkness in the

After-time.

— E. Ethelbert Miller

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Birds Birds Birds

American dippers — also known as water ouzels — communicate by blinking rapidly and bobbing. (Nancy Hamoud)

These birds are known to 'walk underwater' and are perfectly fine with icy cold streams: Naturalist Brian Keating says dippers are found in clear, clean streams and creeks, Brian Keating, CBC News, 4/16/21

"In fact, an excited dipper will dip 50 times a minute … they do it for a living."

Keating said the dipper is the size of a plump robin with its tail cut short and can look almost like a grey tennis ball.

The birds are slate grey and blend perfectly into a cobblestone creek if they are standing motionless.

What does the study of domesticated birds tell us about the evolution of human language? Looking for keys of the human language evolution in bird singing, University of Barcelona, Eureka Alert, 4/19/21

According to this new study, the evolution of language would be related to another noteworthy feature of Homo sapiens: tolerance and cooperation towards each other.

The study draws on evidence from such diverse fields as archaeology, evolutionary genomics, neurobiology, animal behaviour and clinical research on neuropsychiatric disorders. The authors hypothesize that a reduction of reactive aggression, resulting from the evolution and process of self-domestication of our species, could have led to an increase in our language complexity. According to the authors, this development would be caused by a reduced impact on brain networks of stress hormones, neurotransmitters that activate in aggressive situations, and which would be crucial for how we learn to speak. To show this interaction, the researchers analysed the genomic, neurobiological and singing-type differences between the domesticated Bengalese finch and its closest wild relative.

Five Incredible Ways Birds Change Their Bodies for Spring and Fall Migration: To power perilous journeys, birds undergo extreme feats like doubling their body weight and rearranging or even consuming their internal organs, Kevin Johnson, Audubon Magazine, 4/9/21

It’s tempting to compare bird migration to marathon running. In both, participants prepare intensely and undergo an extreme test of endurance. But the similarities stop there. Though marathon runners push the human body to its limits—during the 26.2-mile race, core temperatures spike to 102 degrees Fahrenheit and the heart pumps three to four times more blood than usual—birds radically change their bodies and their metabolism for the main event. In just weeks or months, they undergo physical transformation unmatched by human gains from years of training. To fly vast distances between breeding and wintering grounds, birds can shrink their internal organs, rapidly gain and burn through fat stores, barely sleep, and more.

GPS tracker on wedgies gives us a bird’s eye view, Miki Perkins, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/23/21

In the clear skies above the Tasmanian midlands, a young wedge-tailed eagle soars upwards on a thermal. Wyatt is his name, and in eight hours he had flown an extraordinary 225 kilometres.

Wyatt’s location was pinpointed using a tiny GPS tracking system attached to his back that regularly sent text messages to the mobile phone of University of Tasmania post-doctoral researcher Dr James Pay. These data points have been strung together into mesmerising flight videos.

Wedge Tailed Eagle Footage

Tracking Wedge Tailed Eagles

Progressions…

Psychedelics are transforming the way we understand depression and its treatment: Psychiatry has long failed to explain depression. Our research into psilocybin suggests a new approach could offer answers, Robin Carhart-Harris, The Guardian, 4/20/21

The most exciting aspect of this trial is a sense that we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in mental healthcare linked to an improved understanding of the origins of depression, and how we can most effectively treat it. In my view, this shift will take us away from an outdated and myopic “drug-alone” perspective that has dominated psychiatry for several decades, and towards a multi-level “biopsychosocial” model. This model sees the symptoms of depression as an adaptive response to adversity, with decipherable – albeit complex – psychosocial causes. Psychedelics can treat depression by activating powerful brain states that have evolved in humans to catalyse deep psychological change. When these “hyper-plastic” states are combined with a nurturing environmental context, defensive habits of mind and behaviour can undergo a healthy, potentially enduring revision.

Native Spaces: Tracing the History of California Indians and Sacred Land, Damon B. Akins and William J. Bauer, Jr., Lithub.com, 4/21/21

For thousands of years, the Bay Area was one of the most densely populated regions on the West Coast. The People who lived there were the children of Coyote, who lived at Reed’s Peak, and Eagle, who lived on Mount Diablo. Both possessed a view of the Bay Area similar to the one down Bancroft Way. After a great flood receded, Coyote and Eagle placed their children on the shores of the bay.

At the time of European contact, at least 50,000 people lived from the Carmel River to the San Francisco and San Pablo Bay area. They consisted of 50 or so small bands, who spoke at least eight mutually intelligible languages. There was more water then, and the Ohlone elevated their 30 to 40 permanent villages above the marshland on shell mounds—huge piles of shells, earth, and ashes. Today, a memorial at the Bay Street Shopping Mall at the corner of Shellmound Street and Ohlone Way marks the Emeryville Shellmound, located where Temescal Creek empties into the bay. The West Berkeley Shellmound stretches a few blocks inland from where Strawberry Creek empties into the bay at the Berkeley Marina. Excerpted from We Are the Land: A History of Native California.

Restorative Justice in Indian Country: Wellness courts provide an example of how some tribal governments are using indigenous sovereignty to build a community-based justice system, rooted in support and trust rather than punishment, Michelle Chen, Dissent, 4/16/21 

Tribal wellness courts are roughly structured like drug courts, which, at least in theory, are supposed to focus on rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration. Wellness courts mostly deal with conventional drug- and alcohol-related charges, but with a focus on diverting people from incarceration and offering a culturally driven treatment framework. While drug courts have often been criticized for being more punitive than therapeutic—frequently threatening individuals with jail if they fail to comply with their treatment plans—the wellness court has an unusual mandate: the judges, counselors, and social service providers who run the court emphasize support and trust rather than punishment, and use ancestral cultural practices to help people in treatment rebuild their lives and integrate into the community.

The network of more than ninety wellness courts nationwide is part of a project of court reforms since the late 1990s that mesh Native culture with principles of rehabilitation and restorative justice.

Dolphins learn the ‘names’ of their friends to form teams—a first in animal kingdom,Virginia Morell, Science, 4/22/21

Like members of a street gang, male dolphins summon their buddies when it comes time to raid and pillage—or, in their case, to capture and defend females in heat. A new study reveals they do this by learning the “names,” or signature whistles, of their closest allies—sometimes more than a dozen animals—and remembering who consistently cooperated with them in the past. The findings indicate dolphins have a concept of team membership—previously seen only in humans—and may help reveal how they maintain such intricate and tight-knit societies.

How start-up Kindred is pushing companies to improve on workplace equity and social justice, Tony Case, Digiday, 4/22/21

“The nature of our professional networks continue to evolve, and finding peers who align with your personal and professional values is more important than ever,” said Laura Barger, CMO of Financial Health Network, who joined Kindred as a founding member “to benefit from and support the growth of a group of driven, passionate professionals who represent the next generation of leaders across industries.”

“There are a ton of executive leadership communities — however, not many of them are rooted in integrity and making the world a better place by starting with making yourself a better person,” said Nate Nichols, founder and creative director of Palette Group. “Kindred enables you to access services that support you in your personal and interpersonal development, and resources to up-level your professional development. I can’t stand networking, but I adore community building with humans who see me and my values inherently.” 

An E.V. Start-Up Backed by UPS Does Away With the Assembly Line: Arrival, a developer of electric vans and buses, says it has come up with a cheaper way to build vehicles in small factories. But can it deliver on that promise? Neil E. Boudette, NY Times, 4/21/21

The company, Arrival, is creating highly automated “microfactories” where its delivery vans and buses will be assembled by multitasking robots, breaking from the approach pioneered by Henry Ford and used by most of the world’s automakers. The plants would produce tens of thousands of vehicles a year.

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How did we get here? It’s a question almost every semi-conscious American seems to ask — and frequently. And we don’t mean this as a question of cosmology. If there is one single event that changed America in the past twenty years, it is the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court in 2010. That ideologically grounded decision opened the floodgates for dark money – mostly from billionaires interested in choking democracy and promoting a right-wing, authoritarian agenda. And now we reap the results on a daily basis, as this report demonstrates:

Outsized Influence: 12 political megadonors are responsible for $1 of every $13 in federal elections since Citizens United and 25% of all giving from the top 100 ZIP codes — a total of $3.4 billion, Michael Beckel, Issue One.

I think it all comes back to one central theme: income inequality. Capitalism is sort of this gangster construct that leverages a species’ selfishness and creates all sorts of prosperity from that selfishness. But the key to successful capitalism has always been a middle class. At the turn of the millennium, America was the only superpower, and we had the most prosperous middle class in the world. In the past 20 years, the key feature of China’s rise to superpower has been adding several hundred million people to its middle class. But for the past 50 years in America, we have decided to transfer wealth from the middle class to the shareholder class. The lower and middle classes haven’t done any worse, and they haven’t done any better but the share of income controlled by the top one percent has exploded. And I believe that creates all sorts of externalities. —Scott Galloway, No Mercy, No Malice, 4/16/21

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I tell you I can visualize it all
This couldn't be a dream for too real it all seems
But it was just my imagination once again runnin' way with me
Tell you it was just my imagination runnin' away with me

Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me), The Temptations, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, 1971 (number 1 on the Billboard chart in April)

Happy Birthday Ella Fitzgerald, 1917-1996

And Happy Birthday, poet Ted Kooser —

Flying at Night
Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations.
Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies
like a snowflake falling on water. Below us,
some farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death,
snaps on his yard light, drawing his sheds and barn
back into the little system of his care.
All night, the cities, like shimmering novas,
tug with bright streets at lonely lights like his.

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If you’re listening to podcasts (and who isn’t these days?), and interested in books and publishing, the latest episode of Writerscast features my interview with children’s book publisher Angus Yuen-Killick.

Thanks to all who have the patience to read this collection every week, and special thanks to all who write me back. Stay well, stay strong, and stay engaged. And let’s get together soon in person.