The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 132, November 20, 2022 (V3 #28)
“I look forward—always forward—to the unfolding story of our nation. A story of light and love. Of patriotism and progress. Of many becoming one. And, always, an unfinished mission to make the dreams of today the reality of tomorrow.”—Nancy Pelosi
“…we’re stuck with a tech industry – and thus an economy – in thrall to a handful of deeply, shockingly, inadequate and irresponsible leaders. The lack of competence, the near-total absence of integrity, have left us all vulnerable to a host of new problems, whether we use these tools or not.”—Mark Hurst, Creative Good
“I personally think they probably have the basis for legitimately indicting [Trump].... They have the case.”—William Barr, 11/18/22
Politicks
Trump’s Paymaster, Judd Legum, Popular Information,11/17/22: “Since Trump left office, entities controlled by the Saudi government, a repressive regime responsible for the murder of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, have sent billions to Trump and his family members.”
Returns: What do the U.S. midterm elections say about the country’s changing political life? Bill Scher on the end of one election cycle and how it’s shaping the next, Graham Vyse, The Signal, 11/16/22: “I really can’t think of a historical parallel to this situation, where one of the two major American political parties is in thrall to an unelectable fringe—as that fringe is divided within itself. It’s singular.”
Morning Digest: Republicans just took control of the House because of gerrymandering. Here's how, Staff, Daily Kos, 11/17/22. Just one example: “the Supreme Court and judges in Florida allowed GOP gerrymanders to remain in place for 2022 in four states even though lower courts found that they discriminated against Black voters as litigation continues.”
GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump, Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, 11/17/22
Four Scenarios for the 2024 Republican Primaries: Don’t believe the pundits saying they know how it will play out, Seth Moskowitz, Persuasion, 11/18/22
A Rare Win in the Fight Against Dark Money: In Arizona, voters from both parties overwhelmingly demanded that big, anonymous political donors reveal their identities, Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, 11/16/22
'This is positively dystopian': Florida judge strikes down censorship law championed by Ron DeSantis, Jake Johnson, Alternet, 11/17/22
Failures of Imagination: The Iranian regime is fighting a protest movement it does not understand and cannot seem to control, Ali Ansari, Comment is Freed, 11/16/22: “Revolutions are rarely ‘won’: it is governments which lose power.”
The Age of Cheap Stuff Is Over: Prices Aren’t Ever Coming Back Down — Because the Bill for an Unaffordable Lifestyle is Overdue, Umair Haque, Medium, 11/15/22
Passion Doesn’t Pay the Bills, Sophie Vershbow, Vulture, 11/16/22: “It’s not just HarperCollins employees’ livelihoods at stake — an increase in pay at HarperCollins could improve life at the other publishing houses.”
African scuba divers rewrite a ‘settlers’ narrative’ of the slave trade: Off the coast of Senegal, a Smithsonian-sponsored program is training divers to explore and document sunken slave ships, Rachel Chason, Washington Post, 11/17/22
Help stop a genocide: It's easy. Here's how, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 11/16/22: “I asked where I could be most immediately helpful. The answer from the Ukrainians I asked was a system to defend against the Iranian drones. And so that is what, as an ambassador of the president’s United24 platform, I have pledged to do: to raise $1.25 million for such a system, a Shahed Hunter.” Donate to fund a Shahed Hunter.
We indulged & found the right move in relation
To the movements of the lion’s mouth, the mouth
Which counted all who entered & left waywardly
Haphazardly the immigrant sphere where
Frozen petals fell behind the red curtain
So slowly they woke me like a knock on door #7
—from “Kristin’s dream in November,” Bernadette Mayer
Environment and Science
The climate impact of the Thanksgiving meal might surprise you, Tamar Haspel, Washington Post, 11/17/22: “The mainstays of the meal are poultry and plants, which make Thanksgiving a much more climate-friendly holiday than, say, the burgerfest that is the Fourth of July.”
Five countries have cost the world $6 trillion in global warming losses: Climate change is causing substantial economic damage, recent research finds, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 11/16/22. In case you’re wondering, it’s the U.S., China, Russia, Brazil, and India
Will Lithium Mining Turn California's Salton Sea into a Green Energy Sacrifice Zone? Once a tourist destination, the Salton Sea faces ecological collapse, toxic dust storms—and maybe a lithium boom, Paige Oamek, In These Times, 11/16/22
The Unnatural Evolution of the Galapagos Islands: Humans are forever altering these mythical islands through unnatural selection. Rewilding them entails finding a delicate balance between the needs of turtles, tourists—and local residents, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, Neo-Life
The Galapagos Islands Will Be a Cool Refuge in a Warming World: A geological coincidence placed the Galapagos Islands in the line of an icy current that provides food and shelter in a warming ocean. The good news might not last for long, Richard Kemeny, Hakai, 11/16/22
A new tick-borne disease is killing cattle in the US: The emerging disease is threatening the livestock industry. Critics say the government has been slow to respond, Britta Lotking, MIT Technology Review, 11/17/22
Glassy fangs and glowing fins: amazing deep sea animals found near Cocos Islands: Discovered in the deep: Scientists exploring the uncharted waters of the Indian Ocean uncover a multitude of dazzling sea creatures around a remote Australian island group, Helen Scales, The Guardian, 11/14/22
Frogs vs. Climate Change: How Long Can They Stand the Heat? New research compiles the “heat tolerance” of 616 amphibian species — and reveals how much more we need to know, John R. Platt, The Revelator, 11/16/22
This is how an Alzheimer’s gene ravages the brain: Study in cells and mice suggests that the variant APOE4 affects the all-important insulation around nerve cells, Elie Dolgin, Nature, 11/16/22
The $6 Billion Shot at Making New Antibiotics—Before the Old Ones Fail: Antimicrobials cost as much to develop as other drugs, but don’t earn the same returns. Congress could give drugmakers a boost, but time is running out, Maryn McKenna, Wired, 11/14/22
Game-changing type 1 diabetes drug approved in US, Smitha Mundasad, BBC News, 11/17/22
Who Is Dying from COVID Now, and Why: Nearly three years into the pandemic, COVID’s mortality burden is growing in certain groups of people, Melody Schreiber, Scientific American, 11/16/22
Researchers played Lady Gaga for rats. They bopped their heads like humans, Orlando Mayorquin, USA Today, 11/14/22
As Evidence Mounts, New Concerns About Fracking and Health: Two decades after the advent of fracking, a growing number of studies are pointing to a link between gas wells and health problems, particularly among children and the elderly. Researchers are now calling for new regulations restricting where wells can be located, Jon Hurdle, Yale Environment 360, 11/17/22
Battery-powered appliances! I invested in a cool company that I think could replace gas with batteries, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 11/16/22
Why This Universe? A New Calculation Suggests Our Cosmos Is Typical: Two physicists have calculated that the universe has a higher entropy — and is therefore more likely — than alternative possible universes. The calculation is “an answer to a question that is yet to be fully understood,” Charlie Wood, Quanta, 11/16/22
Webb telescope spots earliest galaxies yet, and they are cosmic oddballs: The two bundles of stars formed shortly after the big bang, offering a long-anticipated window into the origins of the universe, Mark Johnson, Washington Post, 11/17/22
South Korea has almost zero food waste. Here’s what the US can learn. In the US, most food waste ends up in landfills while South Korea recycles close to 100% annually, and its model could illustrates some core principles, Max S. Kim, The Guardian, 11/20/22
Keep smoothing
the stones in the
driveway
let me fry an egg
on your ass
& I’ll pick up
the mail.
—from “Each Defeat,” Eileen Myles
Books and Culture
Remembering Kenward Elmslie and Lucia Berlin through Their Postcards to Each Other, Chip Livingston, LitHub, 11/14/22: “When someone you care about gets hurt, make something pretty to look at.” Book: Love, Loosha: The Letters of Lucia Berlin and Kenward Elmslie
Eileen Myles on Writing With Political Meaning: "Reading is a collaborative act,” Eileen Myles, LitHub, 11/18/22: “I am definitely interested in the surprising edges or the forced march of a riveting pattern. And there’s something indeterminately true about each and every one. Sometimes it’s in the writer’s very willingness to make that gesture at all. To make this of that.” Excerpted from Pathetic Literature
The Struggle to Unearth the World’s First Author: Decades ago, archaeologists discovered the work of Enheduanna, an ancient priestess who seemed to alter the story of literature. Why hasn’t her claim been affirmed? Elizabeth Winkler, The New Yorker, 11/19/22
The Fifty Most Banned Books in America, Jennifer Martin, CBS News, 11/10/22. Number one: Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
Nearly 300 books banned in Missouri since August, PEN America says: Books have been taken off school library shelves for allegedly having some visual image that could be interpreted as harmful to kids, Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech, The Hill, 11/16/22
Master of Light: how one man went from poverty to prison to painting: In the inspiring HBO documentary, the gifted classical painter George Anthony Morton looks back at his past of hardship and incarceration, Radheyan Simonpillai, The Guardian, 11/16/22
Annie Ernaux Turns Memory Into Art: Many authors write about their lives. Over nearly fifty years, the Nobel laureate has discovered new ways to do it, Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 11/14/22: “I am a medium, I feel that I’m someone who can transmit things.”
AI, Scott Galloway, No Mercy/No Malice, 11/18/22: “What’s different about AI is that it solves real-world problems, specifically problems that are … fuzzy.”
Picture Limitless Creativity at Your Fingertips: Artificial intelligence can now make better art than most humans. Soon, these engines of wow will transform how we design just about everything, Kevin Kelly, Wired, 11/17/22. Ed Note: Just a reminder to boosters like Kelly, every advance comes with a cost. It’s a law of physics.
If cyberpunk no longer fits our vision of the future, what does? Cyberpunk, once a hi-tech picture of the future, now feels passe. A new adaption of sci-fi novel The Peripheral gives a fresh perspective on how tech could transform humanity, Annalee Newitz, New Scientist, 11/9/22
Wealth is partly imaginary: And crypto wealth is more imaginary than most, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 11/18/22: “Wealth is just sort of a weird concept. It will always be a little bit of a fugazi.”
How China Got Our Kids Hooked on ‘Digital Fentanyl:’ TikTok is a national security threat, Geoffrey Caine, Common Sense, 11/16/22: “TikTok now has 138 million active monthly users across the United States and is projected to hit $12 billion in profits this year, and it is in P.R. mode, publicly challenging its critics.”
Twitter Is Dying, and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself: As Twitter spirals out of favor—and closer to some inevitable end—maybe, instead of Discord or Mastodon, it’s time to consider a digital DNR, Delia Cai, Vanity Fair, 11/17/22: “In her 2019 pro-logging-off book/manifesto How to Do Nothing, the artist Jenny Odell wrote, “Let us not forget that, in a time of increasing climate-related events, those who help you will likely not be your Twitter followers; they will be your neighbors.”
Bless
something small
but infinite
and quiet.
There are senses
make an object
in their simple
feeling for one.
—Robert Creeley
Birds
“Sitting outside and listening to the birds and getting to know their songs is really calming. And to me, the special thing about birds is that they can leave—they don’t have to be there, but they have chosen to be where you are, and at some point, they’ll move on.” –Joan E. Strassmann, from Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard
‘Like Finding a Unicorn’: Researchers Rediscover the Black-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon, a Bird Lost to Science for 140 Years: A successful expedition in Papua New Guinea captured photos and video of the chicken-size pigeon, highlighting the value of local ecological knowledge as scientists seek out other long-missing species, Andy McGlashen, Audubon, 11/17/22
Lesser Prairie Chickens Gain Under U.S. Endangered Species Act: The new listing aims to prevent further loss of habitat for the flamboyant, stocky birds, which have drastically dwindled in population, Eduardo Medina, NY Times, 11/17/22 (gift article, no paywall)
Saving Island Birds: Conservationists Take A Lesson From Huck Finn, Marty LeGrand, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, 11/17/22: “It’s a voluntary network of important shorebird sites. It’s completely non-regulatory, but it’s a celebration of how important this place is.”
Chris O’Dowd Teams Up With Redbreast Whiskey To Save ‘Common’ Birds, Gina Pace, Forbes, 11/17/22: ‘I don’t know how to stop everything from collapsing around me, but I feel like we can help birds a bit.’
Koan for Moke
life might be a matter of time
we are sometimes aware of
but do not truly understand
now nothing and everything
are one and the same
I say your name
—David Wilk
“There, rest. No more suffering for you. I know where you’ve gone, it’s good.”
om mani peme hung, om mani peme hung, om mani peme hung
These fleeting charms of earth
Farewell, your springs of joy are dry
My soul now seeks another home
A brighter world on high
—from “Long Time Traveller,” The Wailin’ Jennies, written by Tara Nicole (nicky) Mehta
Here's How You Can Celebrate Native American Heritage Day This November: Mark your calendars for the 25th, Abby Dupes, Seventeen, 11/17/22
Wishing you all the best and sending much love whatever you will be doing this week, however you may be choosing to celebrate our being here, in this place, together, still.—David