The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 179, October 15, 2023 (V4 #23)
In other words, what if our last best hope for flourishing together is magic? I don’t mean magic-show magic, or even Crowleyian occult magic, but the magic of a sudden, unexpected shift in who we are, or how we think. Or, another way to think of it is that instead of being rescued by UFO craft coming from some other planet, we meet the inter dimensional creatures that have been with us here, all along. Or we even finally just meet the plants and animals and organisms that have been here with us, all along, for real.—Doug Rushkoff
The collapse of American democracy is like the pandemic. Whatever you say at the beginning will sound alarmist but likely prove inadequate at the end.—Stuart Stevens
Book, Music, Art and Culture
We Need Soulful Intelligence: Machine Thinking and Hyper-Rationality Aren't Enough, Rob Brezsny, Astrology Newsletter, 10/10/23: “Pure mind, as beautiful as it can be, is not enough: We need the vital soul. Whenever the mind is involved without the participation of the soul, we are liable to misunderstand reality and come to distorted, dissociated, sterile conclusions.”
Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore: The social-media Web as we knew it, a place where we consumed the posts of our fellow-humans and posted in return, appears to be over, Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 10/9/23: “The Internet today feels emptier, like an echoing hallway, even as it is filled with more content than ever. It also feels less casually informative.”
Living the Questions: On the Shared Foundations of Therapy and Poetry, "Therapy, like poetry, requires us to embrace mystery,” Lisa C. Krueger, LitHub, 10/13/23: “The process of discovery, in both therapy and poetry, bears the weight of questions.”
This couple just published a Nobel winner from their living room: Transit Books, the American publisher of Nobel Prize-winning author Jon Fosse, is the rare publishing house that literally operates out of a house, Jacob Brogan, Washington Post, 10/13/23
Inspired By the Genius Loci: On Unlocking the Spirit of Settings: What It Means to Write About the Holocaust, Martin Goodman, LitHub, 10/12/23: “… writing does not just happen in your head. It’s a whole-body experience, totally sensory, and the more you allow yourself to open your eyes and walk and see and hear and smell and taste and touch, the more solidly you can build a world that is a home for your readers.” Buy the book: The Cellist of Dachau
How to Write a Memoir While Dying: On Cancer and Honesty, Dan O’Brien, LitHub, 10/11/23: “I am asking for a clear perception of the wonder of my now ten-year-old daughter’s afternoon boredom, of my wife’s slight drowsiness after dinner, of the dusty moonlight in the window across from our bed—a bed I can rest in and again rise from.” Buy the book: From Scarsdale
How can we be alone in the universe? The answer is here on earth, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 10/12/23: “A future in which we survive and explore depends on getting a technological balance right, and on getting social justice right. But that depends on some human recognition of the deeper problems and some human ethical judgements. There is still a bit of time to make these adjustments; not much, though.”
Roxane Gay: ‘I’m trying to move further left because that’s the only way that we’re gonna achieve change;’ The author and cultural commentator on racism, prison reform, weight loss drugs, violence and her idols, Bim Adewunmi, The Guardian, 10/14/23: “I think my primary advice is that we cannot afford to be nihilistic and throw our hands up and say everything is hopeless.”
‘At 77, I am becoming who I am’: Henry Winkler on the Fonz, fans, and finding self-esteem: After Happy Days, the actor was adrift for decades until Arrested Development and Barry brought acclaim, an Emmy, and now a memoir. He discusses fame, childhood, and how he never stopped being grateful, Fiona Sturges, The Guardian, 10/13/23
Piper Laurie, who excelled in roles fragile and fierce, dies at 91: The actress played Paul Newman’s disabled girlfriend in ‘The Hustler’ and Sissy Spacek’s religiously fanatical mother in ‘Carrie.’ She also went incognito as a Japanese businessman on the TV series ‘Twin Peaks,’ Adam Bernstein, Washington Post, 10/14/23
Louise Glück, Nobel Prize-winning American poet, dies at 80: She was renowned for her lyrical but precise explorations of childhood, family, loneliness and death, Harrison Smith, Washington Post, 10/13/23
Rudolph Isley, founding member of the Isley Brothers band, dies at 84: He sang on the Isley Brothers’ breakout hit ‘Shout’ and remained with the band for decades, helping to reinvent its sound during the funk and disco eras, Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 10/12/23
I'm not trying to run your life, I know you wanna do what's right
Give your love now, to whoever you choose
How can you lose, with the stuff you use now
—from “It’s Your Thing,” written by O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley
Politics and Economics
I’m Going to War for Israel. Palestinians Are Not My Enemy, Nir Avishai Cohen, NY Times, 10/13/23: (no paywall) “This war, like others before it, will end sooner or later. I am not sure I will come back from it alive, but I do know that a minute after the war is over, both Israelis and Palestinians will have to reckon with the leaders who led them to this moment. We must wake up and not let the extremists rule….
At the end, after all of the dead Israelis and Palestinians are buried, after we have finished washing away the rivers of blood, the people who share a home in this land will have to understand that there is no other choice but to follow the path of peace. That is where true victory lies.”
Déjà Vu in Israel: The conceptual system that has dominated Israeli thinking and policy for decades has been exposed, repeatedly, as dangerous and delusional, David Shulman, NY Review of Books, 10/11/23: “In effect, the state of Israel has drifted remorselessly (in two senses of that adverb) toward hara-kiri.”
The Hamas horror is also a lesson on the price of populism, Yuval Noah Harari, Washington Post, 10/11/23: “The real explanation for Israel’s dysfunction is populism rather than any alleged immorality. For many years, Israel has been governed by a populist strongman, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a public-relations genius but an incompetent prime minister.”
The Gaza Strip − why the history of the densely populated enclave is key to understanding the current conflict, Maha Nassar, The Conversation, 10/12/23: “… civilians bear the brunt of this conflict.”
Who Can Claim Palestine? Tomas Pueyo, Uncharted Territories, 10/14/23: “Israel and Palestine deserve to be countries.” DW: If you read only one article to understand the history of Israel and Palestine, this is the best I have seen, historical, balanced, and nuanced. If there is an answer, it is to listen to what the people want, not governments, not outside interests. But that will never happen.
Israel’s Dwindling Moral High Ground: Netanyahu’s Gaza attacks are rapidly squandering precious global goodwill, Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 10/13/23
What Will Be the Destiny of Netanyahu? The tragic Hamas attacks on Israel prompt reflections on the strongman model of leadership, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, 10/12/23: "As one country after another has discovered, the strongman is at his worst as a leader when he is most needed by his country."
This War Shows Just How Broken Social Media Has Become: The global town square is in ruins, Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 10/12/23: “ The internet has never felt more dense, yet there seem to be fewer reliable avenues to find a signal in all the noise.”
Class 21. Project Lakhta: A window into the creation of Russian talking points, which sound eerily like a lot of current GOP talking points. Which is the chicken and which is the egg? Rasha Rangappa, Freedom Academy, 10/13/23
The Source of America’s Political Chaos: The election of 2016 is still poisoning our politics, Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 10/13/23: “As Trump tries to regain his office, voters should remember that nothing is inevitable: Choices matter. Elections matter. A single day can matter.”
How Will America Weather the Historic Times We Face? These are moments pregnant with possibility, but also saturated by danger - they require exceptional and farsighted leadership, statesmanship instead of politics & a commitment to the general welfare…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 10/12/23: “In this generation, we Americans may well determine the fate and future of democracy all around the world.”
We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority: The inside story of how Leonard Leo built a machine that remade the American legal system — and what he plans to do next, Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein, Ilya Marritz, ProPublica, 10/11/23
Charles Koch's audacious new $5 billion political scheme, Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, Popular Information, 10/11/23: “Koch is funneling his wealth into two secretive organizations that can continue his right-wing political advocacy for years.
As ominous threats rise, the U.S. is mired in moronic, clownish politics, George F. Will, Washington Post, 10/13/23: “This coming week, any Republican aspirant worthy of the office she or he seeks will at last forthrightly stand against Trump’s siren call of isolationism.”
Is Russia's Battlefield Shifting from Ukraine to the US Political System? And...Russia is close to having the upper hand because of Putin’s ability to get Republican politicians to mouth his talking points and propaganda...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 10/13/23: “Putin is throwing everything he has at it (as you can see by reading posts pretending to be Americans on Facebook and Twitter/X, etc.).”
We're not ready for the Big One: A war over Taiwan is a real possibility, and the U.S. is not prepared, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 10/15/23: “I think many Americans fail to realize the extent to which the war between Israel and Hamas is in part an extension of a larger great-power struggle, pitting the Russia-Iran-China axis against the U.S. and its allies.”
Another Solution, Steve Schmidt, The Warning, 10/14/23: “Vast percentages of Americans have lost the ability to distinguish reality from delusion, or tell the difference between a truth and lie.”
God has pity on kindergarten children.
He has less pity on school children
And on grownups he has no pity at all,
he leaves them alone,
and sometimes they must crawl on all fours
in the burning sand
to reach the first–aid station
covered with blood.
—from “God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children,” Yehuda Amichai
Science and Environment
The Planet’s Big Blue Machine: Why the Ocean Engine Matters: The ocean is an enormous engine, turning heat energy into motion, says physicist Helen Czerski. But human activity is threatening that machine — depriving the seas of oxygen, increasing stratification, and potentially changing the currents that influence global weather, Richard Schiffman, Yale Environment 360, 10/12/23
A sudden spike in global warmth is so extreme, it’s mysterious, Scott Dance, Washington Post, 10/13/23: “A proper attribution will need time and effort, it may well end up being ambiguous.”
Farmers Want Climate Resilience, but GOP Lawmakers Want to Redirect Billions in Conservation Funds: Republicans in Washington are using farm bill negotiations to redirect billions of dollars in IRA funding away from climate-smart farming and toward business-as-usual commodity programs, Wendy Johnson, Civil Eats, 10/12/23
Oil giants unveil ‘game-ending’ strategy to kill climate cases, Lesley Clark, E&E News, 10/10/23: “Local governments are trying to hold the companies liable for injuries that stem “from the cumulative worldwide use of all oil, natural gas, coal, and other sources of emissions.”
‘People are happier in a walkable neighborhood’: the US community that banned cars: A new housing development outside Phoenix is looking towards European cities for inspiration and shutting out the cars. So far residents love it, Oliver Millman, The Guardian, 10/11/23
Beavers reintroduced to west London for first time in 400 years to improve biodiversity, James Manning, AP News, 10/12/23
Galapagos Giant Tortoises Prove Their Worth as Ecosystem Engineers: A decades-long project to restore Galapagos giant tortoises is changing the face of the island of Española, Syris Valentine, Hakai, 10/12/23
The Secret of How Cells Make ‘Dark Oxygen’ Without Light: In some subterranean aquifers, cells have a chemical trick for making oxygen. It offers new insight into how life survives deep underground on Earth—and where it might lurk in space, Saugat Bolakhe, Wired, 9/24/23
Sponging Up Plastic Pollution: Scientists have developed synthetic sponges capable of extracting microplastics and nanoplastics from contaminated water, Chris Baraniuk, Hakai, 10/5/23
Microplastics detected in clouds hanging atop two Japanese mountains: Findings regarding clouds above Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama highlight how microplastics are highly mobile, Tom Perkins, The Guardian, 10/9/23
Think that your plastic is being recycled? Think again: Plastic is cheap to make and shockingly profitable. It’s everywhere. And we’re all paying the price, Douglas Main, MIT Technology Review, 10/12/23
Ants may be the first known insects ensnared in plastic pollution: Plastic waste routinely ensnares marine life, but even small landlubbers are not immune, Jake Buehler, Science News, 10/12/23
Wildfire smoke can infiltrate your home, even when windows are closed: Air pollution can be just as bad inside a home, research finds. Air filtration can help, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 10/10/23
New technology uses good old-fashioned wind to power giant cargo vessels, Scott Neuman, NPR, 10/5/23: “Imagine what looks like Boeing 747 wings with movable flaps, set vertically on a ship's deck.”
Oyster fight: The humble sea creature could hold the key to restoring coastal waters. Developers hate it: Revitalizing oyster farms and wild oyster reefs could undo decades of environmental destruction on our coasts, Anna Kramer, MIT Technology Review, 10/10/23
NC State researchers engineer 'promising' plastic-degrading microbe to help polluted oceans, Sophie Mallinson, WUNC, 10/11/23
Time to Kill Off ‘Net Zero:’ Stop pretending planting trees can justify fossil fuels emissions, Mark Schapiro, Capital and Main, 10/10/23
In Our Cellular Clocks, She’s Found a Lifetime of Discoveries: For decades, Carrie Partch has led pioneering structural research on the protein clockwork that keeps time for our circadian rhythm. Is time still on her side? Veronique Greenwood, Quanta, 10/10/23: “n mammalian cells, the circadian clock mechanism centers on two proteins, CLOCK (green) and BMAL1 (blue), that intertwine to promote gene transcription.”
This First Peek Inside NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Capsule Is a Glimpse Back in Time: Scientists finally began opening the rock sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx captured a treasure trove of material from the solar system’s earliest days, Ramin Skibba, Wired, 10/11/12
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead—from “Question,” May Swenson
Health and Wellness
That Old Nonstick Skillet May Be Unsafe. Here's How to Tell: Depending on the age of your Teflon pots and pans, they may contain harmful PFOAs. This helpful guide to nonstick cookware has all the answers you need, David Watsky, CNET, 10/10/23
Massive new database on how plastic chemicals harm our health: The first-of-its-kind, open-access database includes more than 3,500 studies on plastic and human health, EHN Staff, Environmental Health News, 10/11/23
Birds
The World’s Most Beautiful Bird Lives in Yellowstone National Park: Behold the Peregrine Falcon, Douglas W. Smith, Lauren E. Walker, Katharine E. Duffy, David Haines, LitHub, 10/12/23: “Peregrines are the most far-reaching terrestrial vertebrate, occupying every continent except Antarctica.”
Climate change could increase pressure on declining American kestrel population: Changes in the timing of spring could cause a mismatch between their nesting behavior and the availability of food for their chicks, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 10/9/23
Bird Biodiversity Reports Reflect Cities’ Redlined Past: The lack of bird records in formerly redlined areas creates an inaccurate picture of urban biodiversity, leading to gaps in conservation efforts, Kimberly M.S. Cartier, Eos, 10/5/23
‘It felt like I was holding the sun’: The gift of baby birds, Betsy Verecky, WBUR, 10/12/23: “I had expected the yellow warbler to try and fly out of my hands, but to my surprise, he didn’t. I stayed as still as possible, marveling at his exquisite golden color, the intricate markings on his tail. His chest expanded when he breathed in and shrank when he breathed out.”
You’re like me tonight, one of the lucky ones.
You’ll get what you want. You’ll get your oblivion
—Louise Gluck (from “Night Song”)
It’s harder every week to figure out what is going on and what we can do about it. Some of us are praying - and there are many forms prayers can take. Some are meditating. Some are raising their voices in protest. There is only one thing I am certain of — the only thing we cannot do is nothing. Doug Rushkoff has it right - we need some magic now.
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, thanks for who you are and what you do. Please keep in touch. Stay well. Share love. I am with you.—David