The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 118, August 14, 2022 (V3 #14)
“I think that every minute we’re attached to the earth, we should be doing something.”—Ruth Asawa
“The logic of the market has no time for empowering individuals. Individuals exist to aggregate revenue that feeds the market.”—John Warner, Biblioracle
“Free speech is life itself.”—Salman Rushdie
Blame it on the system,
Those that came before.
Updated consciousness.
Knocking on doors.
Piecemeal solutions will only leave scars,
Bandages for nosebleeds,
In this city of artificial stars.
Words of Woody Guthrie ringing in my head.
—from “Bandages & Scars,” Son Volt, written by Jay Farrar
Books and Culture
Salman Rushdie is off ventilator and able to talk, agent says: Author seriously injured in New York stabbing remains in hospital, as Joe Biden praises his courage and suspect denies attempted murder, Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian, 8/13/22
Salman Rushdie teaches us an invaluable lesson: It is courageous and necessary to stand up against tyrants – even when those tyrants claim to have God on their side, Jill Filipovic, The Guardian, 8/14/22
Fresh Updates on the Dead: On Jerry Garcia’s Current Status in the Spirit Realm: The Eternal Jerry Alive and Well on YouTube, Joey Sweeney, LitHub, 8/9/22: “The man from the Dead is trying to speak to those of us in the now. He has breaking news. Today the news is this: How sweet it is to be loved by you!”
Lamont Dozier obituary: Member of the trio who wrote and produced songs that built the Motown legend and helped define popular music in the 1960s, Richard Williams, The Guardian, 8/9/22
Why do you keep coming around, playing with my heart?
Why don't you get out of my life
When seeing you just breaks my heart again
There ain't nothing I can do about it
—from “You Keep Me Hanging On,” Brian Holland/Edward Holland Jr./Lamont Dozier
Radical Lesbians and Active Desire: On Rita Mae Brown and the Lesbian Political Movement: The Early Days of Queer Feminism, Nona Willis Aronowitz, LitHub, 8/11/22: “In some circles, declaring oneself a lesbian became a prerequisite to feminism, while heterosexuality was a weaker reformist position.”
How “The Victorias” Brought Local History to Life: In a blend of improv and education, the group of actors in Ethan Fuirst’s documentary enabled visitors to the Tenement Museum to speak with a teen-ager from the past, Eric Nelson, The New Yorker, 8/10/22
American Literature Loses Out to Consolidation, Richard Howorth, NY Times, 8/11/22 (Gift Article): “What I have seen as a bookseller is that publishing, originally geared toward offering new writers the chance to connect with readers, evermore trends toward an industry narrowly engineered to produce repeat best sellers.”
Christina Lamb on the Remarkable Life and Boundless Determination of War Correspondent Virginia Cowles, “Cowles’s encounters with all the key players have led some to describe her as the Forrest Gump of journalism,” Christina Lamb, LitHub, 8/9/22
What Can the Way We Eat and Enjoy Food Tell Us About Ourselves? On Taste, The Doorway to Our Inner Architecture, Jehanne Dubrow, LitHub, 8/12/22: “Our bodies can only understand the tastes they take in with the assistance of our interpretative, meaning-making minds.”
Poet Nikita Gill: ‘I worry about people getting tattoos of my work. What if I made a typo?’ Etan Smallman, The Guardian, 8/10/22
I weigh the sea,
I weigh the storm,
I weigh a thousand stories long
—from “What I Weigh,” Nikita Gill
How to Bear Your Suffering: The Young Poet Anne Reeve Aldrich’s Extraordinary Letter to Emily Dickinson, Maria Popova, The Marginalian, 8/14/22: “It is only through the gates of suffering, either mental or physical, that we can pass into that tender sympathy with the griefs of all of mankind which it ought to be the ideal of every soul to attain.”
My Early Years: Dreams, Psychedelics & the Teachings of the Tsongkhapa – Ep 301, Robert Thurman, bobthurman.com, 8/10/22: “Thurman discusses emptiness, non-duality, the myth of the Kali Yuga and coming of Shambhala, reincarnation and the Buddhist perspective on the soul.”
Politics and Money
“He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again…You cannot constrain him. He is who he is. Truth matters little to him. What’s right matters even less, and decency matters not at all.” – Adam Schiff
Trump’s Mess at Mar-a-Lago: If Trump committed a serious crime, he must be prosecuted. But the law alone won’t be enough to save American democracy, Tom Ginsburg, Persuasion, 8/12/22
Maybe Democrats Aren’t Totally Screwed in the Midterms: Biden's approval ratings have stabilized, polls suggest Democrats are closing the enthusiasm gap with Republicans, and voters are pissed at the Supreme Court. Is it enough for Democrats to stave off a GOP insurgency this fall? Eric Lutz, Vanity Fair, 8/12/22
Free Speech on Trial: Speech is about the right to say what you want. But being heard is all about market power. That's why two antitrust cases, one in publishing and one in online video, matter, Matt Stoller, BIG, 8/12/22
Economic misconceptions of the crypto world: Cash isn't savings, scarcity doesn't create value, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 8/9/22: “Crypto people think a lot about economics…. But too often they think about it in loose, impressionistic ways, or they engage in wishful thinking based on their own morals, or they simply misunderstand how basic econ principles work. And too often, they think they can force these misunderstandings to be true by yelling them at people over and over.”
It’s Supply, Stupid: More evidence today’s inflation is not the result of excessive demand, Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 8/12/22: “It would be good for conservative macroeconomists to get out of the office and have a close look at the actual economy.”
The dollar system's resilience, Adam Tooze, Chartbook, 8/13/22: “It is a sprawling, resilient network of state-backed, commercially driven, profit-orientated transactions, lubricated by the easy availability of dollars, interwoven with American geopolitical influence, a repeated game in which intelligent players continuously gauge their advantages and disadvantages and the (very few) alternatives open to them and then, when all is said and done, again and again come back for more.”
What NFTs Can Learn from Art and Luxury: And if you don’t understand NFTs yet, read this, Tomas Pueyo, Uncharted Territories, 8/9/22: “art and luxury show us the key rules of NFTs.”
Macroeconomic update: Soft landing in progress? Disinflation finally arrives, the job market is strong, and we'll still probably see rate hikes, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 8/11/22
‘Enormous’ fertilizer shortage spells disaster for global food crisis: The high cost of fertilizers will likely keep the cost of food dangerously high, Eddy Wax, Bartosz Brezinski, Politico, 8/9/22
Historians privately warn Biden that America’s democracy is teetering: When Biden met with historians last week at the White House, they compared the threat facing America to the pre-Civil War era and to pro-fascist movements before World War II, Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Tyler Pager, Washington Post, 8/10/22
How Sinema subverts the radical conventions of queer politics: The campy, effective activists of the past were always punching up. In the senate, Sinema just punches down, Nathan Kohrman, Washington Post, 8/12/22
Work from Office, Scott Galloway, No Mercy, No Malice, 8/12/22: “…the physical workplace offers guardrails, structure, and connections for a generation that’s been robbed of relationships and growth.”
Gen Z workers demand flexibility, don’t want to be stuffed in a cubicle: The young generation of professionals is entering the workforce with new demands — including increased flexibility, wellness perks and authenticity — shaped by their experiences during the height of the pandemic, Danielle Abril, Washington Post, 8/11/22
Trapped in Trump, Trump, Trump: The ex-President’s “Hell Week” overshadows Biden’s best week yet, Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 8/11/22: “The implications of this unprecedented act is that the DOJ may now have determined that the former President may have committed criminal acts,”—Sherrilyn Ifill
There Is No MAGA Movement Without Threats and Violence: The volcanic response to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago is the latest escalation of pro-Trump intimidation, David French, The Atlantic, 8/12/22
Don't Take The Trump Bait: We have begun to move past him. Don't let the FBI take us back, Andrew Sullivan, Weekly Dish, 8/12/22
Donald Trump’s O.J. Defense: His apologists keep shifting their arguments—desperately trying to sow confusion and doubt, Philip Rotner, The Bulwark, 8/12/22: “Preemptively invoking the O.J. Defense is more than a little telling. It strongly suggests consciousness of guilt.”
Environment and Science
This Laser-Firing Truck Could Help Make Hot Cities More Livable: Scientists are driving around in a specialized observatory to better understand how urban heat varies not only block to block, but door to door, Matt Simon, Wired, 8/9/22
The search for an AC that doesn’t destroy the planet: The AC is about a century old. What comes next? Rebecca Heilweil, Vox, 8/10/22: “the world will need to boost the efficiency of the appliances we already have — as quickly as possible — and invest in new tech that could avoid some of AC’s primary problems.”
Rainwater everywhere on Earth unsafe to drink due to ‘forever chemicals’, study finds, Rosie Frost, EuroNews, 8/8/22
Q&A: The polio virus was detected in New York City wastewater. Do you need to worry? Jalyn Diaz, NPR, 8/12/22: “The risk to New Yorkers is real but the defense is so simple – get vaccinated against polio,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said.
Global heating has caused ‘shocking’ changes in forests across the Americas, studies find: Trees are advancing into the Arctic tundra and retreating from boreal forests further south, where stunting and die-offs are expected, Oliver Milman, The Guardian, 8/10/22
Wildfires could release radioactive particles from nuclear sites: And global warming is making wildfires more frequent and intense, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 8/12/22
Dried Up: Lakes Mead and Powell are at the epicenter of the biggest Western drought in history, Zack Budryk, The Hill, 8/11/22
The Federal Government Alone Won’t Save Us from Climate Change: In the face of a regressive Supreme Court and a slow-moving Congress, citizens must push states and cities to act, Rachel Lyle, Undark, 8/11/22
Can Wolves and Beavers Help Save the West From Global Warming? A regional rewilding network would help capture carbon, boost water supplies and protect against flooding and drought, Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, 8/9/22: “It is the fundamental flaw in our thinking that we think we know better than nature…”
Are Criollo Cattle a Regenerative Solution to a 1,200-Year Megadrought? This heritage breed has adapted to dry rangelands and may help regenerate the soil while needing less water and feed than other cattle. Ranchers in Southern California are helping them find a niche, Jacqueline Covey, Civil Eats, 8/8/22
What Does Animal Grief Tell Us About How They Understand Death? On Mourning Rituals and Death Wisdom, Justin Gregg, LitHub, 8/10/22
One Great Shot: Bling with a Sting: A decorator crab dons its armor, Mok Wai Hoe, Hakai, 8/12/22
Locusts Can Smell Cancer, And It Could Give Us a Brilliant New Way to Save Lives, David Nield, Science Alert, 8/9/22: “the insects can actually pick out individual cancer cell lines, suggesting that the type of cancer, as well as the presence of cancer, can be detected.”
COVID changed their lives. What those with long haul symptoms want people to know, Danielle Dawson, KPBS, 8/11/22: “Not much is known about what causes long COVID and how to treat it”
Unexpected Solar Wind Stream Hits Earth at 372 Miles Per Second, Fiona MacDonald, Science Alert, 8/9/22
Intrinsically stretchable neuromorphic devices for on-body processing of health data with artificial intelligence, Shilei Dai, Yahao Dai, Zixuan Zhao, Jie Xu, Jia Huang, Sihong Wang, Matter, 8/4/22
A Bioengineered Cornea Shows It Can Improve People’s Sight: Donated human corneas are scarce in places where they’re most needed. A version made from pig collagen could help meet demand, Emily Mullin, Wired, 8/11/22
Math error: A new study overturns 100-year-old understanding of color perception, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Phys.org, 8/10/22
All the Birdies
The Done-Up Bird Gets the Worm: Starling chicks apply their preening oil as a lipstick to get more food from their parents, Sam Zlotnik, Smithsonian, 8/10/22
Hummingbird that was feared extinct is spotted in Colombian mountains: The Santa Marta sabrewing, an emerald green hummingbird, has been officially documented for only the second time since it was discovered in 1946, Luke Taylor, New Scientist, 8/5/22
Never-before-seen colorful bird hybrid surprises scientists: The offspring of a scarlet tanager and rose-breasted grosbeak—distantly related birds whose evolutionary paths diverged 10 million years ago—was recently found in Pennsylvania, Annie Roth, National Geographic, 8/10/22
A long dead soldier looks out from the frame
No one remembers his war; no one
remembers his name
Go out to the meadow; scare off all the crows
It does nothing but rain here, and nothing
will grow
—Tom Waits, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
“Social Security is so firmly embedded in the American psychology today that no politician, no political party, no political group could possibly destroy this Act and still maintain our democratic system.”—Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor (1933-1945). The original Social Security Act was signed August 14, 1935
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Love comes quietly,
finally, drops
about me, on me,
in the old ways.
What did I know
thinking myself
able to go
alone all the way.
—Robert Creeley