The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 146, February 26, 2023 (V3 #41)
“I think the most stupid decision that the Supreme Court ever made and one of the most damaging was to rule that corporations are people and that major corporations now can give unlimited supplies of money to candidates." —Jimmy Carter
… Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light
—from “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” Johnny Cash (born 2/26/1932)
Books and Culture
Tax the Rich: And give lots of it to the arts, John Warner, The Biblioracle Recommends, 2/26/23: “We’re supposed to pretend that Elizabeth Koch is a serious person because she can attract excellent writers who are trying to make a living to her publishing company, or because some academics will say good things about her because Elizabeth Koch is the source of her funding? Honestly, fuck that. Tax these people. Put the money to the public good, very much including the arts, which we all benefit from.”
A matter of survival: Burda Media Ukraine CEO Andrii Vdovychenko gives us an update on publishing in Kyiv, Pierre de Villiers, FIPP, 2/22/23
What Dickens and Prince Teach Us About Creativity, Burke Nixon, The Millions, 2/23/23: “Hornby makes a convincing case that these two incongruous figures share something profound in their prolific approach to making art. They are both, he writes, “a particular kind of genius.”” Book: Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius
Salman Rushdie calls revisions to Roald Dahl books ‘absurd censorship,’ Jennifer Hassan, Washington Post, 2/19/23
Roald Dahl Can Never Be Made Nice: Rewriting his novels is about corporate safetyism, not social justice, Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 2/21/23
The trans ‘queen mother’ reclaiming Fiji’s third gender – photo essay: Reggie Mcgoon has taken inspiration from vakasalewalelewa – a traditional term for transgender women which was nearly erased by colonial rule, Katie Edwards, The Guardian, 2/19/23: caption ‘I was one of the first trans people to walk around Suva city in high heels in the daytime.’ Photograph: The Guardian/Katie Edwards
What a Sixty-Five-Year-Old Book Teaches Us About A.I.: Rereading an oddly resonant—and prescient—consideration of how computation affects learning, David Owen, New Yorker, 2/25/23: The book is wonderful – from 1958, Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin
ChatGPT Heralds an Intellectual Revolution: Generative artificial intelligence presents a philosophical and practical challenge on a scale not experienced since the start of the Enlightenment, Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher, Wall Street Journal, 2/25/23 (no paywall!): “Inherently, highly complex AI furthers human knowledge but not human understanding—a phenomenon contrary to almost all of post-Enlightenment modernity. Yet at the same time AI, when coupled with human reason, stands to be a more powerful means of discovery than human reason alone.”
Why Fig Pollination and Literary Criticism Have a Lot in Common: the Critical Gaze, Eroticism, and the Generative Third Body, A. V. Marraccini, LitHub, 2/24/23: “The critical gaze is also erotic; we want things, we are by a degree of separation pollinating figs with other figs by means of our wasp bodies, rubbing two novels together like children.” Book: We the Parasites
In the Hour of War: Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky on Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry: “Take only what is most important. Take the letters. / Take only what you can carry,” Carolyn Forche, Ilya Kaminsky, LitHub, 2/24/23
Take immortality, God, but give
me this cold apple cellar. Take the souls
and other toys, but let us live: not-Adam and not-Eve not your son’s—
my son’s life.—Dmitry Bliznyk
Politicking
Jimmy Carter Reflects the Best of America: Jimmy Carter was the finest president of my lifetime, perhaps one of the four best presidents in American history behind Roosevelt, Lincoln & Washington. When he passes, America will be the poorer...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 2/20/23
Feminism taught me all I need to know about men like Trump and Putin: Like all abusive men, dictators seek to control who can speak and which narratives are believed. The only difference is scale, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian, 2/25/23: “At the very root of tyranny, no matter whether it’s personal or public life, lies the belief that the agency and agenda of others is illegitimate, that only the would-be tyrant should control the household or the nation.”
Inside the Dissident Fringe, Where the New Right Meets the Far Left, and Everyone’s Bracing for Apocalypse: Preppers, techies, hippies, and yuppies are converging on the American West, the safest place to “exit” a society gone haywire, James Pogue, Vanity Fair, 2/21/23: “…now a lot of highly online coastal elites talk in much the same way that backwoods militiamen arming themselves against the new world order have been for decades. And vice versa.”
Arizona’s top prosecutor concealed records debunking election fraud claims: Newly released documents show how Republican Mark Brnovich publicized an incomplete account of his office’s probe of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Washington Post, 2/22/23
It's The Culture, Stupid: Nikki Haley Previews What Will Matter in 2024, Joe Klein, Sanity Clause, 2/21/23: “The reaction to Nikki Haley’s candidacy is an omen. In the absence of a war or an economic cataclysm, race will be—as it almost always has been—the central (if often underlying) issue in American politics.”
How a small-town train derailment erupted into a culture battle: The East Palestine train accident is one of hundreds each year, but it’s become a significant political flashpoint, Toluse Olorunnipa, Justine McDaniel, Ian Duncan, Washington Post, 2/25/23
Notes on Democracy, from Kyiv to East Palestine: There's lots of ways to break it, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 2/23/23: “Those of us lucky enough to be born in not-an-autocracy have the obligation to keep working all the time to keep our putative democracy strong.”
Making of Modern Ukraine, Lecture 1: "Ukrainian Questions Answered by Russian Invasion,” Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 2/25/23: “Myth closes down the questions that history is meant to ask. And it prevents us from learning almost anything of interest.”
One Step at a Time: The Stages of War, Lawrence Freedman, Comment is Freed, 2/26/23: “A look back over the last year of war, and the many stages it went through, encourages caution when trying to predict what might happen over the coming months never mind the coming years.”
Putin aiming to divide US public opinion with nuclear treaty pullout, experts say: Russian president accused of ‘playing to rifts in the United States’ by raising specter of nuclear war between Moscow and west, Ed Pilkington, J. Oliver Conroy, The Guardian, 2/22/23
Will China let Putin's regime collapse, or risk all to save a feckless ally? Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph, 2/21/23
The Chinese Century Is Already Over, Yi Fuxian, Project-Syndicate, 2/22/23: “Chinese leaders have long staked their policies on the assumption of a rising East and declining West, but China is already past its prime. The gap between its declining demographic and economic strength and its expanding strategic ambitions now constitutes a major geopolitical risk.”
Russia and China Have a Stranglehold on the World’s Food Security: Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the role of fertilizers — and who controls them — as a strategic lever of global influence, Alan Crawford, Frank Jomo, Elizabeth Elkin, Matthew Bristow, Bloomberg, 2/19/23
Finland’s Turn to the West: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has abruptly ended the Finns’ reservations about joining NATO, Gordon F. Sander, NY Review of Books, 3/9/23 issue
To NYT’s Peter Baker, Acknowledging Trans People’s Existence Is “Activism,” Openly Advocating for Perpetual U.S. Occupation of Afghanistan Isn’t: What is and isn’t “activism” depends entirely on how conservative the activism is, Adam Johnson, The Column, 2/21/23
The US Supreme Court Doesn’t Understand the Internet: A case before the court is challenging social media platforms’ legal protections. The outcome could be huge for the future of the web, Vittoria Elliott, Dell Cameron, Wired, 2/21/23
Don't be a doomer: Flamboyant pessimism serves no useful purpose, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 2/21/23: “What I really want is for people to refocus on the problems that matter most, and to stay motivated to fight those problems.”
I look out my window, what do I see?
A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me
All the nightmares came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay
—From “All You Pretty Things,” David Bowie
Science and Environment
HIV patient cured after bone marrow transplant in rare case, research shows, Kelsey Ables, Washington Post, 2/21/23: “A man in Germany who had been diagnosed with HIV has been declared free of the virus after receiving HIV-resistant stem cells through a bone marrow transplant intended to treat leukemia.”
Israeli scientists find groundbreaking approach for treating Alzheimer’s: An Alzheiber's treatment porposed by Israeli scientists targets mitochondrial gatekeeper, controlling deterioration of cells, Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Jerusalem Post, 2/19/23
How inflammation in the body may explain depression in the brain: Inflammation is a pathway to depression — and a potential avenue for treatment, research suggests, Richard Sima, Washington Post, 2/23/23
Custom, 3D-printed heart replicas look and pump just like the real thing: The soft robotic models are patient-specific and could help clinicians zero in on the best implant for an individual, Jennifer Chu, MIT News, 2/22/23
We’re getting better at putting big predators back into wild places: New research shows measures such as acclimation pens and using wild-born animals helps reintroductions succeed, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 2/22/23
A Basic Premise of Animal Conservation Looks Shakier Than Ever: Are we trying to save animals in the wrong places? Emma Marris, Atlantic, 2/22/23: “Conservationists may be pouring resources into the wrong places, trying to coax animals to live and reproduce in suboptimal environments.”
In Cod’s Shadow, Redfish Rise: Thirty years after the population collapsed, the Atlantic redfish fishery is poised to reopen, providing a second chance at a sustainable fishery, Moira Donovan, Hakai, 2/21/23
Ecocide in Ukraine: For Ukrainian activists, rescuing the dogs of war — not to mention the cats, swans, bats, bears and other wildlife — often means putting their own lives on the line, John R. Platt, Revelator, 2/21/23
Al Gore Talks Climate Progress, Setbacks and the First Rule of Holes: Stop Digging: The former vice president wants to train Americans to make the most of the Inflation Reduction Act. He also talks about what he was thinking during that rip-roaring Davos speech, Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News, 2/25/23
The American climate migration has already begun: Last year, 3 million were displaced in the US. Millions more will follow – and neither they, the government or the housing market are ready, Jake Bittle, The Guardian, 2/23/23
‘It’s like a crime scene’ what’s happened to the Rio Grande in far west Texas: Looking with a generations-long view at a colossal shift in river health, Danielle Prokop, SourceNM, 2/22/23: “The Rio Grande has lost as much as 93% of wetland habitats.”
Strange DNA found in the desert offers lessons in the hunt for Mars life, Joel Achenbach, Washington Post, 2/21/23: “These organisms are bacteria that are “so strange and different,” as the report puts it, that researchers could not identify any known relatives.”
Terrawatch: why has the Earth’s spinning inner core slowed down? The solid inner core is contained within the liquid outer core, enabling it to rotate differently from the Earth itself, Kate Tavilious, The Guardian, 2/22/23: “The finding helps to explain recent changes in Earth’s magnetic field and the length of day.”
Scientists have discovered a new core at the center of the Earth: A recent study reveals a new, distinct fifth layer of Earth deep inside the core, which could help inform the evolution of Earth’s magnetic field, Kasha Patel, Washington Post, 2/24/23
A Tiny Sun in a Jar Is Shedding Light on Solar Flares: This new lab experiment explores the physics involved in our star’s tumultuous interior regions—by creating a sphere of plasma, Ramin Skibba, Wired, 2/20/23
Space telescope uncovers massive galaxies near cosmic dawn, Marcia Dunn, APNews, 2/22/23: “Each of the six objects looks to weigh billions of times more than our sun. In one of them, the total weight of all its stars may be as much as 100 billion times greater than our sun.”
In push to mine for minerals, clean energy advocates ask what going green really means: "We’re still living with contamination from these other abandoned mines,” Shannon Kelleher, The Daily Climate, 2/21/23
The Search for the Perfect Stone: Business is booming, and bidding wars and backroom deals have taken over the wildly popular Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 2/21/23
How did China come to dominate the world of electric cars? From generous government subsidies to support for lithium batteries, here are the keys to understanding how China managed to build a world-leading industry in electric vehicles, Zeyi Yang, MIT Technology Review, 2/21/23
this kind of bird flies backward
and this love
breaks on a windowpane
where no light talks
—from “The Window,” Diane DiPrima,
Birds
Why Are Robins’ Eggs Blue? – Reasons & Myths, Clinton Atkins, Thayer Birding, 2/12/23: “Such eggs are made for survival, but not the usual kind: the blue is not for camouflage but rather for the chick’s protection from the sun.”
Why Are Purple Martins Declining in the United States? Mercury contamination in their Amazonian wintering grounds may play a role, Jill Langlois, Smithsonian, 2/21/23
How Birds Got Their Wings, University of Tokyo, Phys.Org, 2/24/23: “… the team found that the propatagium likely evolved in a group of dinosaurs known as the maniraptoran theropods, including the famous Velociraptor.”
Newly installed bronze sculptures are an elegy to five extinct North American birds: Artist Todd McGrain’s bird memorial documenting a changing world can now be seen on the Stanford campus. A companion documentary film screening and musical performance are scheduled for Family Weekend, Robin Wander, Stanford Report, 2/23/23
Silence Silence Silence Silence
The Kings have arrived
There's no escape, from the Lions
We aren’t selling words
We're straightforward and upfront
Doesn't bother me who says a thing
The haters don’t belong here
—from “El Melouk” by Ahmed Saad
If like me, you have never listened to Egyptian rap before, this may be a revelation. Pretty great. (featured in Moon Night, episode 2)
Above are two Lazuli Buntings I was lucky to photograph on my cell phone (apologies for the quality) in Patagonia, on what turns out to be a rare nice day in southern Arizona this February. Wishing all the best to those of you still ensconced in deep winter.
And the news of the world in all its variety carries on regardless, more than we can even come close to tracking. Take heart — baseball season has begun, and spring is coming soon.
Warm regards and much love to all. —David