From Africa to the Arctic Circle
Eli 23.9 was in Zambia less than two weeks ago. Today he's in Svolvær, Norway, for the upcoming trail race in the Lofoten Islands. He's running the 20k race, which will be challenging, given the elevation changes and trail, but his friend is attempting the 100-miler (ill-advised).
Fun fact about Lofoten: it's climate is extremely mild for its coordinates because of its proximity to the Gulf Stream. The average high in July is a balmy 60F.
It's also extraordinarily beautiful, and I hope to have some pictures for you from Eli next week.
A Question
Why does every road construction worker in this city either have a goatee and is 40 pounds overweight or weighs 110 pounds and looks like he's on meth?
An Insight (for an introvert)
I was talking to a friend a few days ago and said something about introversion that I wish I'd known a long time ago.
For people who are introverted, your mind plays tricks on you when it comes to trying anything new or out of your routine. I thought it was intuition, for a long time, but it's not. It's a weakness.
Your brain will tell you that every new thing, everything out of your comfort zone, is high stakes. Meeting new people, putting your profile on a dating site, anything involving discomfort--it's all high stakes. You'll think about all the ways things could go bad, and often, you'll wind up not doing anything at all.
It's not true.
The vast majority of things in life, for most people, are incredibly low stakes. Being able to identify this properly enables you to marshall your resources when it's truly important. It also allows you to do new things without anxiety.
I wish I could go back and tell young me what I learned. I'm still happy to know, even if it wasn't in the most timely manner.
Honestly, I Kind of See It
C says when I wear these headphones I remind her of Princess Leia.
Friday Links!
Leading off, a genuinely heartwarming story (with plenty of pictures): Bear cub rescued from woods is being raised by humans dressed as bears.
This one is quite nice, too (it's a video in a Reddit thread I couldn't copy the video address directly): Tom the mime brings the best vibes. I can't believe I just linked to a mime who's genuinely funny.
This is an utterly fantastic read: A Century Ago, a High School Teacher From a Small Tennessee Town Ignited a National Debate Over Human Evolution.
A nightmare in the UK: Spies, lies and betrayal: my ruinous relationship with an undercover cop.
A delightful segment from This American Life (about a safecracker): Better Call Dave.
From Wally, and it's excellent: When a president goes rogue: In these books, it already happened. Obscure, yet interesting: Chinese Air Force to 1939.
From C. Lee, and I think this will change over the years, but it's certainly a factor now: AI use damages professional reputation, study suggests. There will be a significant weeding out of AI companies, just as there was a weeding out of Web commerce companies around the turn of the century: Bubble Trouble. I'm not surprised by anything but the concentration: Scientists Just Found Who's Causing Global Warming. An interesting read: How “green” is your 401(k)? There's a giant conflict between the supposed "health" being promoted by the administration and actions like this: The EPA Is Giving Some Forever Chemicals a Pass. This is an excellent read/listen: On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing. People forget what it was like before environmental regulations: Vintage photos reveal what American cities looked like before the EPA regulated water and air pollution. I see it every time I go back, and it's a sad decline: The transformation of Austin, Texas. Surely they'll limit access to this, too (we're in the worst timeline right now): New RSV vaccine, treatment linked to dramatic fall in baby hospitalizations. I had no idea the odd Star Trek chairs were based on real designs: Star Trek Design. Additional: Capisco Chair by Peter Opsvik for HÅG. So clever: There’s some assembly required for these iconic horror characters brilliantly reimagined as IKEA products.
A New Philosophy (part two)
There are many thoughts in this post. Some are jumbled. I'm still working through it all.
The reason I've been thinking about this is because our country, and much of the world, seems to have gone in the wrong direction in terms of men and their attitudes about others.
White men, in particular.
It reminded me that during my philosophy period (a long time ago) I almost never encountered a philosopher (a male, of course) who mentioned kindness or empathy.
On a personal note, I'm not sure I truly understood either until after Eli 23.9 was born. And it still took a while. And I didn't respect women to the degree I should have, either. Yet, I was more progressive than most men my age, even back then.
In short, our culture is toxic. As are many of the philosophers, if you read them with a modern lens.
I also believe that when a philosopher becomes highly influential after their death (often well after) it's because a group of advocates believe their work supports a particular political agenda. What we read is often determined not by the quality of thought, but by the efficiency of advocacy.
I'd never say don't listen to deeply unhappy white men who never had a serious relationship in their lifetime /s. I'd definitely say, though, that you should listen to other thinkers as well. Parenthood alone changes you deeply, as does treating women as people instead of objects. Kindness and empathy are essential in a healthy person, and why would we want to be unhealthy? We need to be finding different sources, different thinkers, than the ones we've depended on for many decades.
You could argue that much art is created by deeply unhappy people who are essentially alone (the tortured artist trope). Some is, certainly, but an enormous amount of art is created by people who aren't alone or miserable at all. More importantly, art isn't a system of thought. Art does make you think, but it primarily makes you feel. Guiding your life is an ancillary goal of art, not a primary one, unlike philosophy.
Like I said, these thoughts are still jumbled, but I'm still exploring the topic, and I'm going to write more about it at some point in the future.
A New Philosophy
I've been thinking about this article for a few months now: Why do philosophers make unsuitable life partners?
This coincided with a discussion Eli 23.9 started about Nietzsche. He said Nietzsche was one of the five most influential minds in history (true, or at least close), so he wanted to experience his work.
I said if Nietzsche was alive today, he'd be an incel.
Eli burst out laughing, but stay with me. Nietzsche had one romantic relationship in his life, which was both chaste and went south quickly. By all accounts, the only sexual experience he had was with sex workers. he wrote intellectual polemics containing absolutely horrific statements about women. He was also (again, by all accounts), thoroughly unhappy during his life.
If he was alive today, isn't that what we'd call him?
That was inflammatory on purpose, but it begs a larger question. Of the most influential philosophers in history--all of whom were men until recently--almost none had a family or were even married. If I remember correctly, Bertrand Russell did (he had several, actually), but he's a rare exception. Most of these philosophers were also terribly unhappy.
Why, then, are we building the intellectual framework of our lives using the thoughts of these men? Why would we not look for the intellectual discourse of healthy, happy humans to shape our beliefs?
I want to continue this tomorrow, but I just wanted to toss out an opening salvo today. Also, we're going to see Sinners at 3:20. Allegedly.
Notes
First, Montreal is out and Queens is in (I can't remember if I mentioned this before). If you have any personal knowledge of Queens in terms of neighborhood, restaurants, etc.--any kind of wisdom--please let me know.
Second, Eli 23.9 is now on the shortlist for Oxford Sportsperson of the Year. That's the second round of three, I think. That puts him in the final ten and he'll find out if he's a finalist (top four) next week.
Third, in response to your queries, the movie we saw was Hurry Up Tomorrow. It has a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. We should have walked into a better wrong movie.
A Movie
C and I went to see Sinners on Saturday.
Eli 23.9 had seen it on an IMAX screen in Lusaka. Tickets were $1.50. He said the experience was incredible, and so was the movie.
I was pumped.
We walked in right at the "start" time listed online. This means watching 10-15 minutes of trailers, but C likes trailers, so it was a calculated move.
Two trailers later, the movie started.
That was much less wasted time than I expected, so I was pleased. A bonus!
The opening scene was strange, but I'd heard it was a strange movie (I hadn't heard much else, other than it was terrific). It was quite compelling, early on, but it didn't quite match up with what little information I had concerning what the movie was about.
Entertaining, though. Quite powerful at times.
I was confused, though. Was The Weekend supposed to be in this movie?
We had an extremely silly moment during the movie when we were both going whir whir whir with our recliner buttons and collapsed into a laughing fit. It doesn't matter much what I do with C because we always have fun. Since we were the only ones in the theatre, it didn't matter.
Eli told me I had to stay through the credits because there was another scene post-credits, and it was important. I knew the movie was 2+ hours, so when credits rolled after 1:40, it seemed early.
"I really think we just watched the wrong movie," C said.
"I'm with you," I said. "Entirely wrong movie."
As it turned out, our tickets said to go to theater 6 and we went to theatre 5. When you walk in and see trailers, though, it reinforces that you're in the right place. Plus, the first scene was super intense and almost experimental, which matched what we expected.
We're going to see Sinners again on Thursday. I wonder what we'll see this time.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, a phenomenal piece about the decline and fall of one of America's greatest newspapers, all caused by one man: Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?
This is a fantastic, astonishing piece of journalism: An English gentleman, a crooked lawyer: the secrets of Stephen David Jones.
A wonderful read: Ghost in the machine? How a 'haunted' N64 video game cartridge terrified children around the world.
What a story: I was Hitler’s neighbour: ‘If he’d known we were Jewish, we’d have been sent to Dachau’.
From Wallace, and well done, ma'am: My School Visit was Cancelled. I Fought Back and Won. Another scam for authors to watch out for: Two to Avoid: Book Order Scams and Fake Reviews.
From C. Lee, and it's genuinely terrifying: These judges ruled against Trump. Then their families came under attack. Beyond ridiculous: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life. This is being pushed more and more: Maga’s era of ‘soft eugenics’: let the weak get sick, help the clever breed. This is bizarre: AI Personas May Be Undercover Police, Engaging With Suspects Online Through Social Media And Text. The game hasn't gotten good reviews, at least so far: Shin Megami Tensei artist Kazuma Kaneko says teaching AI to draw like him was more time-consuming than making art from scratch. It seems like they're essentially running the country now, and in the wrong direction: Tech oligarchs are gambling our future on a fantasy. Quite a sad story: Two men found guilty of ‘mindless, moronic’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree. Interesting: Gen Z women are now in favour of age-gap relationships – and not for the reason you think. Very, very sensitive: Walton Goggins Shuts Down Interview After Repeated Mentions Of ‘White Lotus’ Co-Star Aimee Lou Wood: “There’s No Conversation To Be Had”. An excellent read: The Fighting Temeraire: Why JMW Turner's greatest painting is so misunderstood. Fascinating: 15 Modern Words With Unusual Medieval Origins. Finally: 6th grader's science experiment answers, 'Do cat buttholes touch every surface they sit on?'
Returning
Eli 23.9 is on his way back from Zambia.
I'm not sure of his flight details, but he asked me if I'd seen Anora last night and we agreed it was fantastic. He was in Lusaka in anticipation of a flight today.
Lusaka's population is over a million, and it's over three times larger than any other city in the country (a nation of 20 million people).
We haven't messaged much this time. The second time he visits a place we tend to message less. He did tell me that the drought is continuing, and that their meals mostly consist of maize mixed with water into a paste and shaped into something resembling a rice ball. I believe it's
nshima but I'm not completely sure.
It would normally be served with fish and vegetables, etc., but right now there's just not much of those foods because of the drought. They served fried fish the first day he arrived because the village doesn't receive many visitors.
USAID was an organization providing substantial support to Zambia, particularly during drought, but it's been gutted by the Trump administration. Providing international aid is humanitarian, but it's also political and increases our influence around the world. We've lost that now.
If Letters Had Pants
RPS wrote about a game on Itch called If Letters Had Pants yesterday.
$5. It's one of the most addictive word games I've ever played.
You're presented with a grid of letters. You make words. Underneath the letters are objects you can recover that can be sold for cash or put into a museum.
After clearing each level, you choose a bonus. Think Balatro-type bonuses.
You have bombs you can blow up areas of letters with if they've all become dead ends. You can plant flowers that give bonuses. Some of the letters wear hats. Words you think are legal aren't, and words that can't be words are. Letters appear as numbers and give bonuses when played.
Honestly, it's all crazy. Also, it works perfectly.
There's no tutorial. No written rules. You're just supposed to figure it out.
It's a wonderful piece of game design. Oh, and excellent music, too. Here it is on Itch
Clear your schedule.
Well
I went to a local establishment to print out a few photos (I have a b/w laser printer which is a beast, but not for photos).
The clerk was in her twenties, I guess. She was casually disinterested.
She started explaining the procedure to me, and I asked her a few questions. After one of her responses, which was particularly vague, I said, "You sound dubious."
She said, "I don't know what that means."
Up until this point in my life, I never considered it possible that someone wouldn't know the meaning of "dubious."
Not only did she not know what dubious meant, she seemed positively offended that I'd throw a word around she wasn't familiar with.
This country, man. What have we become?
Carnival Guy
I had a spare half hour one day in Austin, and decided to go to a pinball place near Mom 95.2s house.
I arrived about 10:20. They didn't open until 11.
Bad luck for pinball, but there was a carnival in the parking lot. I took the opportunity to walk over and take some photographs.
It wasn't long before I saw a guy with a clipboard looking at me. Shorts, work boots, clipboard; he was clearly running the show. I waved and he waved back.
I kept taking pictures, and within minutes, he was back.
I walked over to him. "I know I'm not supposed to be here because you're not open yet, but I haven't seen a carnival in a while and it reminds me of when I was a kid, so I'm taking some pictures."
"No problem," he said. "Take all the time you need."
From the neck down, he was in prime shape: muscular legs and arms with a flat stomach (or it looked flat under his t-shirt, anyway). Physically, he looked like he was young.
His face, though, was old.
Heavily weathered by the sun. A wound on his nose. Most of his teeth were missing, and the ones he had weren't in good shape.
He was a colorful local character, in other words.
After another few minutes, I went back and said I'd like to ask him some questions, if he didn't mind.
He didn't.
He said he'd been in the business for 45 years because he'd been born at a carnival. His family owned the second-largest carnival in the country (180 rides) at that time.
He was working booths when he was 8. Taught to drive a semi at 10.
He worked with his family for as long as he could stand it, then moved to another company. It was simpler in the old days, but it was all politics now. This was his fourth company.
I asked him about carny, the language my neighbor Mr. Neal taught me (it's actually in the book I'm working on now). You put an "iz" after the first consonant of every word. He said not many people speak it anymore--mostly old-timers--but that was indeed how you spoke it.
Well done, Mr. Neal (who worked at a carnival with his wife in much younger days).
I asked him what was the craziest thing he'd ever seen, and he said it was his best friend running over his own grandson and killing him.
Not what I expected.
He yelled at him to stop before the accident--he saw it coming--but his friend didn't hear him. No one listens at a carnival, he said. Everything they do between each other is with hand signals. He said he doesn't even hear the crowds anymore.
He was generous with his time. I thanked him and went on about my day.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, and excellent read: Only elites used hallucinogens in ancient Andes society.
If you want to see the greatest impersonation of Axl Rose ever performed, listen to the "Everybody Hurts" clip (the second video of the three): Parrot sings classic rock hits in awesome and hilarious style.
Remarkable for the era: This 1919 cartoon character fought with an actual fly.
From Wally, and there will be an unending process of sorting this out: Hugo Administrators Resign in Wake of ChatGPT Controversy. What a disaster: Broken promises, Fyre Festival vibes: A Million Lives Book Festival was a disaster.
From C. Lee, and it's something you may not want to find out: Steam has a hidden tool that shows how much you’ve spent over the years. A beautiful game: No, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wasn't "made" by 30 people. A terrific story, now endangered: Teaching Kids to Read: How One School District Gets It Right. Goofy, but not surprising: Why the Ultrarich Are Unplugging From “Smart Homes”. A fascinating read: "Napalm Girl," now 62, says don't turn from ugly reality of war. This is alarming: The unregulated link in a toxic supply chain. Unbelievable that we've screwed this up: As Measles Cases Surge, Mexico Issues a US Travel Alert. Does anyone have a spine left in this country? Amazon Caves on Displaying Tariff Prices After White House Loses It. This is going to be ugly: The Death of Affordable Computing | Tariffs Impact & Investigation. This is thorough: Tariffs Timeline. Genuinely incredible: Trump pardons Nevada politician who paid for cosmetic surgery with funds to honor a slain officer. Our new climate of fear: US student journalists go dark fearing Trump crusade against pro-Palestinian speech. Related (it's even Republicans): GOP Senator on Trump’s Second Term: ‘We Are All Afraid’ and ‘Retaliation Is Real’.
Coming Up
It's a travel day and I'm too tired to type this up, but here are a few teaser images for a fascinating conversation I had earlier this week with a 45-year veteran of the carnival business. I'll tell you the rest on Monday.
1982
I went to college (1979-1983) in a town with about 30,000 people. We had three large arcades, and every convenience store had 2-4 machines.
My friends and I preferred one arcade, in particular, where we would spend every Friday and Saturday night. For hours.
One of my friends was an arcade savant. He could put a single quarter into almost any game and play forever. Later, he'd enter the 7-11 national Pac-Man contest, made it to the state finals, and was one fruit away from making it to nationals. He was also the best pinball player I've ever seen. No ball was ever certain to drain unless you stopped him from bumping the machine. More likely, it became a resurrection ball, and he'd play for another five minutes.
He was also a scratch golfer. He was as good on a golf course as he was with a pinball machine.
Did I mention he was one of the funniest people around?
Incredibly smart, too. Way too smart to keep failing organic chemistry. He failed it three different times, the last when he was a senior (spring semester), and instead of admitting he wasn't going to graduate to his parents, he disappeared one night.
No one knew where he was. Not until he contacted his parents weeks later and told them he was selling leather bags out of a parking lot in a Dallas suburb.
I never understood that. Later, I never understood how nothing ever seemed to work out for him. The only commonality was that his decision-making was uniformly bad. Every decision he made always focused on the most convenient or satisfying thing in the short-term, but never in the long-term.
I didn't wind up that way, but I often wondered how close I was. I was sort of the lite version of him, making convenient short-term decisions, but always in a marginally more responsible way. I didn't change, really, until after Eli 23.9 was born
I was lucky.
Placebo
I wondered the other day if anyone had ever studied the placebo effect--with great apes.
It's been established that the effect exists with other animals (see this:
the placebo effect in animals), but it's never been studied in the great apes (other than humans). Gorillas are so intelligent that it would be fascinating to find out whether they also benefit from placebos. I don't even know what it would lead to, but I'd like to know.
I'd also like to see how effective placebos are with AI, which is such a weird scenario I don't even know how you could test it.
Victoria Falls
There are hardships, but one of the benefits of being in Zambia is that you can go to places like this:
The last photo is Eli 23.9 with his best friend (who is in the Peace Corps).
The sheer scale is staggering. I can't even conceive of waterfalls this enormous.
Note on This Week
I've pre-written content for this week as I'll be AFK. Mom 93.1 has been in the hospital for pneumonia and I'll be with her most of this week. Enjoy the already recorded content (I hope) and I'll see you next week.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, from C. Lee (more later), a book review of a B.F. Skinner experiment in child-rearing: The Heir Conditioner. More (from his daughter): I was not a lab rat.
This is fascinating: Chongqing, the world’s largest city – in pictures.
Thoughtful and well-written: In the age of AI, we must protect human creativity as a natural resource.
From Eric Higgins-Freese, and it's amazing: Humans May Be Able to Grow New Teeth Within Just 5 Years.
From Wally, and it's ridiculous: Fallout creator Tim Cain says he was "ordered to destroy" his personal archive of the RPG's development: "Individuals and organizations actively work against preservation".
From C. Lee, and his links have a strong political theme this week. Leading off, groceries? Really? More Americans are financing groceries with buy now, pay later loans — and more are paying those bills late, survey says. We can only hope: Resist, eggheads! Universities are not as weak as they have chosen to be. Unbelievable: Japanese PhD Student Has Visa Revoked in the US Due to Alleged Criminal History. Welcome to the grift: Anti-Vaxxers Are Grifting Off the Measles Outbreak—and Claim a Bioweapon Caused It. This should come as no surprise: Wealthy Americans have death rates on par with poor Europeans. Lots of coward to go around right now: Cowardly Science Awards Cut Seth Rogen’s Comments About Trump From Speech. Indeed: Silicon Valley got Trump completely wrong. A revealing read: ‘America is more divided than ever — but how is it affecting our love lives? I spent a year dating conservative men to find out’. A fascinating video: This giant model stopped a terrible plan. More: Reber Plan. Origins: Japan's Kirin Beer begins as William Copeland's Spring Valley Brewery in Yokohama.
Bosses
For some reason, I thought back on a few bosses I'd had during my business career.
My last boss was terrific. He was highly intelligent, totally let me do my job, and had my absolute respect.
Then there were the others. Let me smush them into one boss.
Brazen lying to cover any mistakes made. Inordinately crude (even at the VP level). Cocaine addiction (and rehab). Long-term relationship with a hooker until his wife found out. Going to Europe on company business and hiring hookers. Having lunch at strip clubs and submitting it as a business expense (got him fired). Affairs. So many affairs, and usually with subordinates.
When I thought back on it, I realized they all had something in common: they all believed they were entitled to anything where they wouldn't get caught. It was so brazen it was almost breathtaking.
Oh, and they were all men.
It explains quite a lot in terms of our current political landscape.
