The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 139, January 8, 2023 (V3 #35)
The cave art of Madison Avenue has been by far the most innovative and educative art form of the twentieth century.—Marshall McLuhan
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.—William Tecumseh Sherman
Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.—Heinrich Heine, 1822.
In the quiet in the calm
Before the storm
You heard the dream for a love
That never dies in a poem
The first person on earth
—from “The First Person on Earth,” Tracy Chapman
Politics
What the Wars and Crises of 2022 Foreshadow for 2023: Tyrants and thugocrats have tightened their hold amid challenges to democracies, but they face problems, too, Robin Wright, New Yorker, 12/30/22
After Brexit and Trump, rightwing populists cling to power – but the truth is they can’t govern, Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, 1/7/23: “…the poetry of destruction, not the prose of competence.”
How Russia has infected our politics: A view from 1,000 feet, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 12/31/22: “Because we’re talking about the Republican Party here, folks – the party that is in the process of elevating Marjorie Taylor Greene into the upper reaches of its leadership ranks.”
Dress Rehearsal: Trump’s attempt almost two years ago to undermine the 2020 election reads today like a blueprint drawn for a future autocrat, Fintan O’Toole, NY Review of Books, 1/19/23 issue
The Big Rip-Off and the Failed Coup: How fundraising contributed to violence, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 1/6/23: “Trump lied about an election, raised money from the lie, and is now using that money to propagate the lie and defend those who told it along with him.”
American Faithlessness: When an Insurrection Is the Beginning of a Crusade, Patrick Nathan, Entertainment, Weakly, 1/5/23: “My advice to legislators present and future, presidents now and next, justices sitting and waiting, is simple: return constituent power to the people and alleviate our desperation. Just because you deprive us of a voice doesn’t mean you won’t be hearing from us.” Ed. Note: long, deeply felt piece, worth reading.
A Brief History of American Socialism: On the Socialism’s Far-Reaching Influence on American Thought, Michael Kazin, LitHub, 1/5/23
Guns Are Not Speech: I have spent my whole life defending the right to protest. But nobody has the right to intimidate, Aryeh Neier, Persuasion, 1/6/23: “It is vital that Americans of all political identities rally around freedom of speech as a means of peaceful persuasion rather than coercive intimidation. Otherwise, we stand to lose a core principle of American democracy.”
$858,000,000,000, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 1/3/23: “The budget of the Pentagon now exceeds "the budgets for the next ten largest cabinet agencies combined." Current defense spending, after adjusting for inflation, "is higher than it was at any point during the Cold War." 2023 will represent "the largest U.S. military budget since World War II.” Ed. Note: And it’s not because of what we’re sending to Ukraine.
Democratic officials’ homes, offices shot up in New Mexico, Susan Montoya Bryan, Moran Lee, AP News, 1/6/23
What We Owe to Animals: It’s possible to respect animal rights without banning animal products altogether, Josh Milburn, Persuasion, 1/4/23: “Treat them with respect. Don’t imprison them. Don’t torture them. Don’t kill them.”
‘Public Trust’—A Key Legal Tool to Preserve Our Natural Resources, Aric Sleeper, Resilience, 1/5/23: “The government is a sovereign with the people giving it power, and the government does not have the power to fully privatize resources that are crucial. Those stay in trust for the people—and the government works as a trustee or fiduciary steward of those resources, and the beneficiaries are present and future generations of citizens.”
The Profound Defiance of Daily Life in Kyiv: In the capital, Ukrainians track the trajectory of Russian missiles on smartphone apps, but refuse to be defeated by fear, Dave Eggers, New Yorker, 1/5/23: “Bravery is Ukrainian Brand.”
What Twitter’s 200 Million-User Email Leak Actually Means: The exposure of hundreds of millions of email addresses puts pseudonymous users of the social network at risk, Lily Fay Newman, Wired, 1/6/23
Three economics happenings of note: Noncompetes, declining disruption, and an inflation debate, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 1/8/23: “The fate of countless workers could hinge on which highly oversimplified stylized toy model we choose to put more faith in.”
The Looming Financial Contagion, Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate, 1/2/23: “With inflation on the rise and the era of ultra-low interest rates over, financial markets will face a huge stress test in 2023. While banking systems are more robust than they were in 2008, a real-estate slump could severely affect heavily leveraged private-equity firms, producing a systemic crisis.”
An honorable human relationship — that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word “love” — is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other.—Adrienne Rich
Science & Environment
The world’s torrid future is etched in the crippled kidneys of Nepali workers: One-third of transplant patients at a center near Kathmandu have been young men who worked abroad in extreme heat, Gerry Shih, Washington Post, 1/6/23
Turn off the gas: Turn on the magnets, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 1/6/23: “All in all, living in a house with a gas range is a risk factor equivalent to living in a house with secondhand cigarette smoke.”
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano eruption resumes, alert level raised, USGS, Reuters, 1/6/23
Four Big Things to Expect in Clean Energy in 2023: From Vineyard Wind to the Chevrolet Silverado EV and much more, here’s what we’ll be watching for in the new year. Plus, the secret that explains the price of the cheapest Tesla, Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News, 1/5/23
The warming climate is altering a key amphibian habitat: Many amphibians lay their eggs in shallow, seasonal wetlands known as vernal pools, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections,1/2/23
Scientists Report a Dramatic Drop in the Extent of Antarctic Sea Ice: Links between global warming and the decline of sea ice in the Southern Ocean are still unclear, but climate can’t be ruled out as a driver, Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, 1/6/23
Great Salt Lake on track to disappear in five years, scientists warn, Sarah Kaplan, Brady Dennis, Washington Post, 1/6/23
How the War in Ukraine is Killing Marine Mammals: Dolphins and porpoises have been washing up dead on the shores of the Black Sea in unusually high numbers – scientists investigating the strandings are now pointing the finger at increased Russian naval activity due to the war in Ukraine, Alix Kroger, BBC, 1/4/23
The Fossil Flowers That Rewrote the History of Life: Some of the world’s first flowers burned in wildfires more than a hundred million years ago. Else Marie Friis rediscovered them, Ben Crair, New Yorker, 1/2/23
Inside Ancient Asteroids, Gamma Rays Made Building Blocks of Life: A new radiation-based mechanism adds to the ways that amino acids could have been made in space and brought to the young Earth, John Rennie, Allison Parshall, Quanta, 1/4/23
How the Tiniest of Particles Helped Build the Modern World: On the Imperceptible Yet Critical Impact of Experimental Physics, Suzie Sheehy, LitHub, 1/3/23: “While theoretical physicists can revel in mathematical possibility, experiments take us to that frightening frontier of vulnerability: the real world.” Book: The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World
The promise of batteries that come from trees, Chris Baraniuk, BBC, 1/3/23: “As demand for electric vehicles soars, scientists are searching for materials to make sustainable batteries. Lignin, the stuff that makes trees woody, is shaping up to be a strong contender.”
What’s next for batteries: Expect new battery chemistries for electric vehicles and a manufacturing boost thanks to government funding this year, Casey Crownhart, MIT Technology Review, 1/4/23
Surfer creates island eco-haven with ancient knowhow, Daniel Harkins, BBC News, 1/2/23: “Indigenous land management also provides "green infrastructure" that can protect the environment, such as soil in intact forests which can absorb water to prevent flooding and release it during the dry season to prevent droughts.”
Sacred Groves: How the Spiritual Connection Helps Protect Nature: From Ethiopia’s highlands to Siberia to the Australian rainforest, there are thousands of sacred forests that have survived thanks to traditional religious and spiritual beliefs. These places, many now under threat, have ecological importance, experts say, and must be saved, Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, 1/4/23
Researchers identify potential climate havens for vulnerable plants and animals: Known as ‘climate refugia,’ these places are better buffered from severe impacts of global warming, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 1/5/23
The ‘Plant Daddy of Dallas’ Is Paving the Way for Clean, Profitable Urban Agriculture: On a half acre, Michael Bell can make up to $120,000 a year growing organic produce for 100 families in his southeast Dallas subdivision, Autumn Jones, Inside Climate News, 1/5/23
US government approves use of world’s first vaccine for honeybees: Hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination, Oliver Millman, The Guardian, 1/4/23
A step towards solar fuels out of thin air, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, EurekAlert, 1/4/23: “What’s new? It’s their novel gas diffusion electrodes, which are transparent, porous and conductive, enabling this solar-powered technology for turning water – in its gas state from the air – into hydrogen fuel.”
Scientists tested the intelligence of 13 dog breeds. Labradors are the dumbest: But they're still lovable, Ross Pomeroy, Big Think, 1/3/23: “Border Collies scored at or near the top in social cognition, inhibitory control, and spatial problem-solving ability…”
What’s next for mRNA vaccines: mRNA vaccines helped us through the covid-19 pandemic—but they could also help defend against many other infectious diseases, offer universal protection against flu, and even treat cancer, Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review, 1/5/23
Omicron offshoot XBB.1.5 could drive new Covid-19 surge in US, Brenda Goodman, CNN, 1/3/23
RSV recedes and flu peaks as a new COVID variant shoots 'up like a rocket,’ Rob Stein, NPR, 1/6/23
The doorway leading to the valleys of dust is always open
The window overlooking the sea is part of the dream
—from “Overnight,” John Yau
Books ‘n Culture
Allen Ginsberg’s Self-Recording Sessions: In the late sixties, Ginsberg began taping many of his public appearances, as well as his casual and private conversations. He used the recordings to compose his greatest work, Kathryn Winner, New Yorker, 1/6/23
‘They are holding on to a dream’: the last bohemians at New York’s Chelsea Hotel, Kat Lister, The Guardian, 1/4/23: “Cultural icons from Patti Smith and Bob Dylan to Allen Ginsberg and Arthur Miller once roamed its corridors – but what of the artists still living there? A new film checks in with the refuseniks holding out against gentrification.” Film: Dreaming Walls
William Wordsworth and the Romantics anticipated today’s idea of a nature-positive life, Jonathan Bate, The Conversation, 1/4/23
The Truth Was Out There: On the Legacy of Art Bell, Jesse Robertson, LA Review of Books, 11/22/22: “I want to believe” is as trenchant now as ever before.”
The Faces of Victor Serge: The radical writer’s novels are unsettling explorations of the tension between individual and collective life, Ben Lerner, NY Review of Books, 1/19/23 issue
America’s Public Libraries Reflect the Systematic Failures and Social Inequality of Our Country: Amanda Oliver recounts the heavy burden of being a librarian in her book "Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library,” Deirdre Sugiuchi, Electric Lit, 1/5/23
"Don't Say Gay": Florida schools purge library books with LGBTQ characters, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 1/5/23
Gulls go up hushed to that entrancing flight,
With never a feather of all the body stirred.
So in an air less rare than longing might
The dream of flying lift a marble bird.
Desire it is that flies; then wings are freight
That only bear the feathered heart no weight.
—from “A Gull Goes Up,” Léonie Adams
Birds
Endangered Bird Poised To Get Hundreds Of Thousands Of Protected Acres In Hawaii: Conservationists took the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to court last year to spur action that was overdue for the imperiled native honeycreeper, Marcel Honore, Honolulu Civil Beat, 1/2/23
Penguins May Have Passed the Mirror Test: Wild Adélie penguins respond to their own reflection, suggesting self-awareness, Richard Pallardy, Hakai, 12/27/22
Scientists identify birds in 3,300 year old Egyptian painting: Not all the bird species in the art had been identified in the century since it was found— until Oxford University researchers decided to try, Staff, Jerusalem Post, 1/5/23
Bird Buddy’s new smart hummingbird feeder can photograph and identify 350 different bird species, Sarah Perez, TechCrunch, 1/4/23
Missing link? A newly-discovered fossil looks like the halfway point between birds and dinosaurs: Cratonavis zhui is a "bird" with T. rex-like skull — and it tells us a lot about avian evolution from dinosaurs, Troy Farah, Salon, 1/6/23
What Bird Longevity Might Teach Us About Human Health: Birds have an exceptional resistance to aging. Can scientists discover their secrets? Steven N. Austad, MIT Press Reader, 1/5/23. Book: Methuselah’s Zoo: What Nature Can Teach Us About Living Healthier, Longer Lives
The greatest danger, as I see it in myself, is the danger of withdrawal into private worlds. We have to keep the channels in ourselves open to pain. At the same time it is essential that true joys be experienced, that the sunrise not leave us unmoved, for civilization depends on the true joys, all those that have nothing to do with money or affluence — nature, the arts, human love.—May Sarton, from The House by the Sea
The calendar may be an invention but we adhere to it. So we’re into the new year, and a busy week, and there’s no sign it will let up. This week’s story collection required even more editing than usual. I hope it is not too long or daunting. Much love to all, and thanks always for writing back.—David