Circling Like a Kite, Kite, Kite

For a minute I tried to solve the problems I've been having at Meta by transferring my daily essays, photos, lyrics and archives to my long-time blog page at Blogspot, but as of today I'm abandoning that effort.

So I am back on Facebook.

Perhaps the daily traffic I grew used to will return as well. Or perhaps not. Either way, since few people use Facebook to read long commentaries on the news, the fit here will always be an awkward one.

So be it.

The news headlines this week are dominated by the climate change summit at Glasgow, the biggest city in my immediate ancestral past. My mother was born in the nearby village of Eaglesham, ten miles to the south, in 1915.

Her father was a tool and die maker at the locomotive factory in Glasgow. He migrated to the U.S. to take a job advertised by Ford Motor Company in Detroit, and that's how I came to be born in the Motor City just after World War Two.

My grandfather was good with his hands. I'm not. (I can't even type properly.)

The only things I can wrangle as a tool and die maker are words.

***

For anyone paying close attention to the news, these are days of high anxiety. In conversations with numerous friends, I am sensing that watching the cable TV news shows is only making everything worse.

In that context, I should explain that what I do in the second segment of my posts every single day. I sort the headlines, aggregating them into a virtual news show.

I started doing this at the urging of various friends who are fed up with the existing newscasts, especially in broadcast formats.

Most days I scan a dozen or so of the major newspapers and news services to collate any the stories that are important for informed people to know about. If there is a summary to go with the headline I include that, but it is not necessary to track down the actual article unless you want to.

The philosophy here is to snack on the news, not gorge on it. I'd rather spend the bulk of my own time on music, film, books, art and with friends virtually and physically. As opposed to developing a news addiction.

It is possible to be a serious person without being an unhappy one -- at least I hope so. While we need to know what is going on, we don't need to obsess on it. So I'll gather the crap into one long list so you don't have to.

[NOTE: For now I'll publish here and on Blogspot simultaneously. It turns out that it is nearly impossible to read Blogspot on a phone.]

HEADLINES:

* Harnessing the energy of the ocean to power homes, planes and whisky distilleries -- On Scotland’s Orkney Islands, an audacious experiment is underway to invent a tomorrow powered by waves and tides. (WP)

* 'When are my parents coming?': Ten-year-old Mansoor only narrowly escaped Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban in August, and while he is now living safely in Washington state with relatives, he asks them every day if he can return. Mansoor is among approximately 1,300 children evacuated to the U.S. from Afghanistan without their parents or legal guardians, according to the HHS. (Reuters)

* Sea foam showers County Waterford village in Republic of Ireland (BBC)

* "Labor action has surged in many industries over the past two years, including in bookselling, a business where unions had been rare. 'I think COVID-19 was a rude awakening for bookstore workers, and really anyone who works with the public,' says Owen Hill, a buyer at Moe’s Books in Berkeley, California, which unionized earlier this year. (AP)

* School board members face dark new reality of abuse, threats from parents (WP)

* World headed for 2.4C warming despite climate summit (BBC)

* U.S. food banks struggle to feed hungry amid surging prices (AP)

* The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 is spiking in the Central Valley, raising concerns about a winter surge. (LAT)

* ‘The End of the GE We Knew’: Breakup Turns a Page in Modern Business History (WSJ)

* Inflation surges to its highest since 1990 (NPR)

* Knopf plans to publish a memoir by Paul Newman next year based on hours of recordings the movie star left behind, as well as interviews with family, friends and associates. (NYT Books)

* The infrastructure bill could power the largest expansion in Amtrak’s history (WP)

* Toxic foam covers sacred Yamuna river in India (BBC)

* 

Britain's Prince Harry has sharply attacked the failure of social media companies to challenge hate online, revealing that he warned the chief executive of Twitter ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots that the site was being used to stage political unrest. (AP)

* Google Loses Appeal of $2.8 Billion EU Antitrust Fine (WSJ)

* The Biggest Kink in America’s Supply Chain: Not Enough Truckers (NYT)

* Twitter announced it’ll roll out a subscription product to lure super users into paying for features like an undo button, anews-aggregating “Top Stories” feature, and ad-free articles that will send a portion of revenue back to publishers. (Nieman Lab)

* Mysterious-looking fog hides Chinese island (BBC)

* Jan. 6 panel can gain access to Trump records, judge rules (WP)

* Trump Officials Illegally Campaigned While in Office, Watchdog Finds (NYT)

* A Democratic early childhood initiative is designed to make decent, affordable child care available to all Americans who want it. Some conservatives are saying that churches and other religious organizations can't be part of the program, and that's simply not true. [HuffPost]

* Journalists Are Hooked on Polls and They’ll Stay That Way (Politico)

* Renewable energy in the U.S. nearly quadrupled in the past decade, report finds (WP)

* 'Sea snot' spreads across Turkish sea (BBC)

* Pfizer Asks F.D.A. to Expand Booster Eligibility to All Adults (NYT)

* Citing China threat, NASA says moon landing now will come in 2025 (WP)

* Tudor wall paintings uncovered in Yorkshire ‘discovery of a lifetime’ -- ‘Pristine’ 16th-century work found beneath plaster in bedroom at Landmark Trust’s Calverley Old Hall (Guardian)

* Unvaccinated Texans 40 times more likely to die of covid than those fully vaccinated in 2021, study says (WP)

* Bounty CEO Rebrands Business As Metaverse Of Napkins (The Onion)

***

"Open Season"

Song by High Highs

Get on your knees

And I thought you can leave it all in your mind in it

All in your mind in it

Crawl in the backseat old friend

It is really all in your mind in it

All in your mind

You look

So tired of living like a kite, kite, kite, kite

Look at all the trees in the light

They are growing all in your mind in it

All in your mind in it

Look at all the leaves in the fire

They are burning all in your mind in it

All in your mind

You look

So tired of living like a kite, kite, kite, kite

Get on your knees

And I thought you can leave it all in your mind in it

Conversation 16: "Into the Silence"

[NOTE: This is the latest in a series of conversations I have been having with a young Hazara friend in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, about life there since the Taliban took over in late August. We are protecting his identity for his safety. These were previously labeled as "letters," but are more accurately described as reconstructions of our conversations.]

Dear David:

The road of life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes we are happy and the days pass quickly. Other times, when we're struggling, time seems to stand still. On these days, the best we can hope for is a friend who can help us find patience. 

Even then, our friends and family members can’t always be with us, and don't always understand us. We may turn to books to distract us from our troubles. Books can provide shelter and an  honest companion in the loneliest of life’s moments. As Paul Auster said: “Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head.” 

The escape hatch swings both ways. For writing, too, is food for the soul. If the body is not given food it will quickly deteriorate; the soul also dies amidst  nostalgia and sorrow.

Maya Angelou understood this need for release when she said "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

For me that story is sorrow. If the sorrow of my life is not expressed, I will have to accept defeat. I have to find a place to shout and empty myself so that others might hear me, across both distance and time. Even as we can hear the pleasurable or sorrowful voices of those who lived thousands of years ago.

My life here in Afghanistan passes interminably slowly. I'm witnessing bitter events, and I need a friend. That's why I write these thoughts to you, dear David. If I didn’t have writing, I wouldn’t be able to breathe. I would have to surrender my soul. 

[NOTE: I am grateful to the friend and editor who helps me reconstruct these conversations.]

***

HEADLINES:

* Facebook whistleblower fears the metaverse -- 

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen warned Tuesday that the “metaverse,” the all-encompassing virtual reality world promised by the social media giant, will be addictive and rob people of yet more personal information while giving the embattled company another monopoly online. (AP)

* McConnell spent decades chasing power. Now he heeds Trump, who mocks him and wants him gone. -- In his 16th year as the Senate’s top Republican, McConnell is increasingly playing the role of a conflicted and compromised booster of Trump’s interests. (WP)

* Obama tells young people to stay angry on climate fight (BBC)

* Today, the official U.N. climate conference agenda will focus on how the impact of global warming disproportionately affects women. (Reuters)

* VIDEO: Obama to Young People on Climate: ‘You Are Right to Be Frustrated’ (AP)

* Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas Flynn and Eastman, Scrutinizing Election Plot (NYT)

* Macy's will raise the minimum wage of its more than 100,000 U.S. employees to $15 an hour by May, as retailers fight to hire and retain workers in an increasingly competitive labor market. (Reuters)

 

* In the remote work era, flexibility is the biggest sell (SFC)   * Storied General Electric to split into 3 public companies (AP)

* The Great Organic-Food Fraud --  There’s no way to confirm that a crop was grown organically. Randy Constant exploited our trust in the labels—and made a fortune. (New Yorker) * Biden administration says blocking vaccine mandate could cost hundreds of lives per day (Politico)   * An anti-vaccine clarion call by leading religious figures, echoed by prominent politicians and social media, helps explain why Romania now has the world’s highest Covid death rate. (NYT) A Secretive Hedge Fund Is Gutting Newsrooms -- Inside Alden Global Capital (Atlantic) *  Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunken people from driving cars. * Desperate Afghans turn to people smugglers for help fleeing the country (BBC) * Capitol rioter applies for asylum in Belarus, says local media (WP)   * The effort to recall the S.F. D.A. raised twice as much money as the campaign to keep him in office. (SFC) * North Dakota Republican behind anti-vaccination rally misses it – with Covid (The Guardian) * U.S. Covid Deaths Get Even Redder --  The partisan gap in Covid’s death toll has grown faster over the past month than at any previous point.  (NYT) *A Secretive Hedge Fund Is Gutting Newsrooms -- Inside Alden Global Capital (Atlantic) * When the Taliban Are in Your Bedroom (NYT) *  Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunken people from driving cars.  (AP)

* Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken said on Monday that Egypt had more work to do on human rights amid calls for Washington to take a tougher stance on Cairo's crackdown on political opponents during meetings in with Egyptian officials. (Reuters)

* Could long covid unlock clues to chronic fatigue and other poorly understood conditions? (WP)

* What It’s Like to Fight a Megafire (New Yorker)

* Taliban-backed polio vaccination program starts (NHK)

* Afghan baby girl sold for $500 by starving family (BBC)

* The Largest Autocracy on Earth -- Facebook is acting like a hostile foreign power; it’s time we treated it that way. (Atlantic)

* How a 12-Year-Old From New Jersey Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster Ever (WSJ)

* Why millions of job seekers aren’t getting hired in this hot job market (WP)

* NBA stars are missing 3-pointers this season. Is a new ball really to blame? (NPR)

* What Paternity Leave Does for a Father’s Brain -- Taking time off from work when a baby is born is essential for mothers and fathers. (NYT)

*  In Jupiter's swirling Great Red Spot, NASA spacecraft finds hidden depths (NPR)

* Discovery Channel Pulls Controversial ‘How It’s Made’ Nuclear Power Episode That Gave Iran Access To Top-Secret Designs (The Onion)

***

"The Sound of Silence"

By Paul Simon

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams, I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
Then the sign said, "The words on the prophets are written on the subway walls
In tenement halls"
And whispered in the sound of silence

Universal Right to Know

What does citizen journalist Zhang Zhan know about the origin of Covid-19 that the Chinese government fears so much? She is reportedly on the verge of death in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which is shorthand for exercising her right of free speech.

Zhang posted 122 YouTube videos based on what she saw in Wuhan in the early months of the pandemic.

According to the Post, "after she was detained in May 2020, Ms. Zhang went on a hunger strike and was force-fed through a tube. She is now reportedly eating very little, but not refusing food, to avoid being force-fed again. But her health has waned."

Freedom of speech and the press is perpetually under siege in most of the world, including its largest country. Meanwhile, Covid-19 is not a Chinese story, it is a global story. It affected all of us and all of us have a right to know what she knows.

In the words of the Post editorial board: "Ms. Zhang should be saluted for her intrepid attempts to record the chaos and cataclysm of Wuhan in those early weeks. She was a sentinel of a looming disaster. Her journalism was not a crime. She must not spend another moment behind bars. She must not be allowed to die."

***

Deciding which songs to insert into a feature film or documentary at the right point is a matter of genius. When the story is based in the past, finding appropriate songs is the work of creative people typically listed way down among the credits.

But great songs not only evoke the times in which they appeared, they remain universal in their appeal.

Today's lyrics belong to 80-year-old Irma Thomas, known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans, an Aretha Franklin-quality musical genius who has never known great commercial success.

Locate her song and where it occurs in a recent film and you'll see what I mean.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Few willing to change lifestyle to save the planet, climate survey finds (The Guardian)

* What the 14th Century Plague Tells Us About How Covid Will Change Politics -- Regions hit hardest by the Black Death in Europe looked more democratic centuries later. What does that mean for society coming out of this pandemic? (Politico)

* Countries’ climate pledges built on flawed data, Post investigation finds -- An examination of 196 country reports to the United Nations reveals a giant gap between what nations declare their emissions to be versus the greenhouse gases they are sending into the atmosphere. (WP)

* The U.S. lifted pandemic restrictions on travel from a long list of countries that include Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, clearing the way for tourists and family members to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year and a half apart. The U.S. will accept fully vaccinated travelers at airport and land borders. [AP]

* She told the truth about Wuhan. Now she is near death in a Chinese prison. (Edit Bd/WP)

* The U.S. Navy christened a ship named for slain California gay rights leader Harvey Milk. Milk is the first known member of the LGBTQ community to have a ship named after him. Milk, who served in the Korean War, received a “less than honorable” discharge from the service after being questioned about his sexual orientation. [HuffPost]

* Running Out of Time at the U.N. Climate Conference -- To really appreciate America’s fecklessness, you have to go back to the meeting that preceded all the bad COPs—the so-called Earth Summit, in 1992. (New Yorker)

* Nextdoor Completes Move to Go Public (WSJ)

* Israel escalates surveillance of Palestinians with facial recognition program (WP)

* Afghan Military Pilots, on the Run, Feel Abandoned by U.S. (NYT)

* Art Is Among the Hottest Markets on Earth -- Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips get ready to sell off at least $1.6 billion worth of art, including works that could sell for 15 times their asking prices. (WSJ)

* Retailers Scramble to Attract Workers Ahead of the Holidays -- Signing bonuses, higher wages, even college tuition. Companies are using perks to entice new employees in an industry that has been battered by the pandemic. (NYT)

* In the supply chain battle of 2021, small businesses are losing out to Walmart, Amazon (WP)

* No COVID deaths in Japan for 1st time in 15 months (NHK)

* Nicaragua Descends Into Autocratic Rule as Ortega Crushes Dissent (NYT)

* Cost and controversy are limiting use of new Alzheimer's drug (NPR)

* How to Overcome Tribalism, the Shouty Minority and Facebook Toxicity -- The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt offers some prescriptions to soothe society in a new interview. (Politico)

* Emaciated children in Kabul hospital point to rising hunger (AP)

* Witnesses to the End -- The young Marines in Kabul were left to determine who was evacuated from Afghanistan and who was left behind. The cost was high. (NYT)

* Instagram: A blessing or a curse? (BBC)

* How did the enslaved workers of Pompeii live? A new discovery provides a rare glimpse (NPR)

* Nature Filmmaker Accused Of Staging Scene Where Bird Uses Tiny Fork To Twirl Worm Up Like Spaghetti (The Onion)

***

Straight From The Heart

Written and sung by Irma Thomas

Do you need me like I need you
Look at me I'm crying from yearning you

Make me forget the pain that you cause
Understanding it's a great thing
If it comes from the heart

If time will stand still
While I'm thinking of you
I think of all the pain that I wanted of you

Make me forget the pain that you cause
Understanding it's a great thing
If it comes from the heart

Picking up the pieces
Of my broken heart
It was real hard