Let People Talk

Back when I worked on film projects in Hollywood, the only one that ever made it onto the screen was "Rollover" with Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson in 1981. 

The lead actor in the film was supposed to have been Robert Redford, according to the plans dawn up by Fonda's production company, IPC Films, which hired Howard Kohn and me to write the story. 

Accordingly, the story we had submitted had two main characters named "Fonda" and "Redford."

But they were two of the biggest stars of that era, in their thirties at the time, and it proved impossible to join their schedules to our movie's shooting schedule.

So Kristofferson was subbed in for Redford, which was a disaster and the movie bombed. He was and is a great songwriter but he can't act. Had Redford played the part as we wrote it, who knows what might have happened. 

The other day, I watched Fonda and Redford star in the 2017 film "Our Souls at Night." By now the stars in their eighties, and arguably better than ever.

I remember how much the pair had wanted to act in a film together when they were young (they actually did once in "The Electric Horseman.") Knowing that history, it was satisfying to see them finally together again in their later years.

"Souls" a sweet film about two elderly neighbors who get together romantically, which causes a bit of a stir in their town but they really don't care about that. I suppose you could say the story celebrates what happens when you reach the point where be you can do what you want to do regardless of public opinion.

***

Recently, a group of friends who are all of my age range met up and agreed that none of them cared all that much what people thought of them any longer either. At least not as much as when they were younger.

It is kind of a relief to reach this stage, they said. Every one of them had led a relatively successful career and those who had had marriages and children felt pretty much okay about how all of that turned out too.

They all seemed to be saying that while perception mattered more in the past, now reality is all they have time for.

Just like in the movie.

***

THE HEADLINES: 

* The number of men enrolled at two- and four-year colleges has fallen behind women by record levels, in a widening education gap across the U.S. (WSJ)

* Think all politics are local? The California recall says most politics are now national. (WP)

* Senate GOP says it will allow debt default; Democrats rush to avert crisis (WP)

* Pentagon acknowledges Aug. 29 drone strike in Afghanistan was a tragic mistake that killed 10 civilians. (NYT)

* Fearful U.S. residents in Afghanistan hiding out from Taliban (AP)

* As an Afghan newspaper struggles to survive, a brutal beating — and a Taliban apology (WP)

* Afghanistan’s Economic Meltdown Leaves Citizens Scrambling (WSJ)

* Taliban Seize Women’s Ministry Building for Use by Religious Police -- Taliban leaders have turned the Kabul building that housed Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs into the offices for the religious police, an ominous portent for women’s rights. (NYT)

* Amid COVID surge, states that cut benefits still see no hiring boost (Reuters)

* Covid Hospitalizations Hit Crisis Levels in Southern I.C.U.s (NYT)

* Fast-food customers are back, but workers are not. It’s triggering major change. (WP)

* Moderna Leads The Authorized COVID Vaccines In Lasting Effectiveness (NPR)

* Amid COVID surge, states that cut benefits still see no hiring boost (Reuters)

* The Facebook Files: A Wall Street Journal Investigation (WSJ)

* India antitrust probe finds Google abused Android dominance, report shows (Reuters)

* Justice for J6 rally sees a sparse crowd and tight security (WP)

* Some Republicans Fear Tighter Election Rules Could Boomerang on the Party (WSJ)

* Why the Empire State Building, and New York, May Never Be the Same (NYT)

* How the deliberately different SF Giants built a surprise Major League powerHow the deliberately different Giants built a surprise Major League power (WP)

* Antidepressant Medication Label Reminds Users That Pill Should Never Be Mixed With Long Look In Mirror (The Onion)

***

"Let Them Talk" (excerpt)

Roberta Flack

by Sonny Thompson

Let them talk
If they want to
Talk, don't bother me
I want the whole wide world to know

Return of the Woolly Mammoth

Over 60 percent of the global population is under 40 years old, which means they have grown up since Michael Crichton's fictional "Jurassic Park" envisioned bringing long-extinct creatures back to life.

Now, a startup called Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences has raised at least $15 million to actually bring the woolly mammoth back to populate the Arctic tundra as an effort to fight climate change and protect the permafrost.

What in Crichton's mind was a fanciful concept is today more like a scientific probability, since in the interim Dolly the sheep became the first mammal successfully cloned in 1996.

There's plenty of woolly mammoth DNA around, and ethical concerns aside, there are those who argue that "de-extinction" of mammals is not only feasible but desirable.

One assumption underlying this argument is that by reintroducing extinct animals and plants, we could help restore balance to the world's ecosystem, thereby repairing the damage one particular species -- Homo Sapiens -- has managed to wreak in a geologically brief period of time.

As attractive as this prospect may be, it is intellectually difficult to accept that we as the species who've mucked it all up have attained anything close to the wisdom necessary to fix it.

On the other hand, if we don't dream, we won't try. Something tells me that Crichton, who passed away way too soon at the age of 66 in 2008, would appreciate the spirit involved in this effort.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Activists ‘born into the climate crisis’ face another challenge: Fear of the future (WP)

* Brazil renews protection of little-seen Amazon tribe for six months (Reuters)

* Scientists want to bring back the woolly mammoth. Ethicists aren’t so sure. (WP)

* UN: Climate pledges put world on ‘catastrophic pathway’ (AP)

* Drenching rains to soak parts of Pacific Northwest, northern California that have faced wildfire risk (WP)

* Biden asks world leaders to cut methane in climate fight (Reuters)

* U.N. predicts globe could warm by worrying 2.7 degrees Celsius (WP)

* Giant sequoias: Multiple forest fires are threatening some of the world’s largest trees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. (AP)

* Will aluminum-wrapped sequoias survive fire’s onslaught? (SF Chronicle)

* Illegal marijuana farms take West’s scarce water (AP)

* FDA panel endorses coronavirus boosters for older adults and those at risk of serious disease (WP)

* Retailers Rethink Pandemic-Battered Manhattan -- Starbucks has closed more than 40 stores, while adding mobile-order pickup counters in others. Other chains like Sonic are taking advantage of vacancies to establish themselves in New York. (NYT) 

* How Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated (WSJ)

* California is seeing covid-19 cases drop. Has the state turned the tide on the delta variant? (WP)

* Children And Teens Gained Weight At An Alarming Rate During The Pandemic, The CDC Says (NPR)

* The pandemic has created a nation of insomniacs (Vox)

* The pandemic has increased the number of people who die without anyone claiming their bodies (WP)

* Taliban replaces women's ministry with ministry of virtue and vice (Reuters)

* Over 10,000 mostly Haitian migrants sleeping under Texas bridge, more expected (Reuters)

* Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, Ohio’s first Latino to represent the state in Congress, said he will not seek reelection after he was one of just 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump. “The current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decisions,” he said. [HuffPost]

* Amazon faces Teamsters union drive at nine Canadian sites (Reuters)

* How the Real Jane Roe Shaped the Abortion Wars (New Yorker)

* Demonstrators are planning to rally in Washington this weekend in support of those who violently breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, prompting concern from law enforcement officials. The “Justice for J6” event is organized by a former Trump campaign operative, although it’s unclear if far-right groups or any elected Republicans will attend. The city is building a security fence around the Capitol again in preparation. [HuffPost]

* UC Berkeley is officially the best college in the U.S., says Forbes magazine, which ranks colleges and placed the university in the No. 1 spot on its new list. UC Berkeley was the 13th best college in America in 2019, the last time the rankings came out. (California Today)

* Looking for a Gold-Rush Town Named Chinese Camp -- A writer went searching for Asian American history in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where thousands of Chinese immigrants labored during the Gold Rush but where traces of their presence are few. (NYT)

* Fourth-Grader’s Report On Anacondas Largely Rehashes Established Research (The Onion)

***

"U Get Me High"

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

 remember feeling like this
I think it was as a child
Inspiration at my fingertips
Imagination running wild

Ohhh ohhh, you get me high
You get me high
You give me something so deep
You get me high

I remember feeling this way
You can lose it without knowing
You wake up and you don't know which way
The wind is blowing

Ohhh ohhh, you get me high
You get me high
You give me something so deep
You get me high

I ain't afraid of what people say
Ain't afraid of the great deception
Every bad dream comes my way
Turned to smoke on closer inspection

Ohhh ohhh, you get me high
You get me high
You give me something so deep
You get me high

Letter From Helmand.8: "The Singers Have Been Silenced"

[Note: This is the eighth letter from an Afghan friend inside the country about life since the Taliban took over control.]

Dear David:

One month has passed since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. We are witnessing huge changes in the daily life of the people. The majority wear a black turban or hat now. Women's portraits have been removed from public view and the panel where  women's portraits once hung was torn. 

No women are seen in the bazaar. 

The singers and artists have been silenced. Illegal immigration out of Afghanistan has increased. Worse than anything, poverty has increased, beggars have increased three-fold as people are selling their belongings to get food. 

According to the United Nations Development Programme, 72 percent of the people lived below the poverty line when the Taliban took over, and now it has increased to 97 percent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday said it was deeply concerned with the economic situation facing Afghanistan and warned of a looming humanitarian crisis. The banks are closing their doors. 

On top of all of this, we are  dealing  with a drought. It is officially estimated that 40 percent of Afghanistan’s crops have been destroyed due to bad weather. 

The prices of food and fuel have doubled. The price of a five-liter can of oil was 420 Afghanis and now it is 850 Afghanis. Construction projects have ceased, and employees are not being paid. There has been a disruption in imports and exports. 

My parents have had to sell one-third of their sheep in order to provide food for our family. 

We hear  that ISIS and Al-Qaeda will revive again in our country. Watching the cruelty and injustice of a handful of wild, illiterate and fascist Taliban has distressed my soul.

Being Candid 101

The pandemic remains the biggest story of our time. It is global in nature and relentless in resisting a solution.

As the weather cools and what was traditionally known as "flu season" begins, Covid will inevitably make another comeback among the unvaccinated, who are a whopping eleven times more likely to die of the disease than the vaccinated.

I'm one of those people who was never attentive when it came to flu shots, but Covid changed me for the better. Regardless of our personal preferences, we need to get these shots (flu, Covid) for the good of everybody.

That concept -- what is good for the whole -- goes against the ingrained American ethic of "every man for himself."

Talking with an unemployed friend recently about the difference between jobs in the private sector and the non-profit sector, we agreed that while competition between individuals can produce profits for companies, few people ever tabulate the losses that occur in human terms.

A study by psychologists some years back of the most common word used by corporate executives when describing their colleagues was "kill," as in "he's trying to kill me."

This was the result of an over-emphasis on pitting one executive and his team against another executive and his team, as if corporate affairs were sporting matches.

These days in management circles in both the private sector and non-profit circles there are books purportedly about management philosophy circulating with titles such as "Radical Candor." (My unemployed friend, who is extremely talented, left his job after a "360" review based on that book's methodology.)

IMHO, these types of management techniques are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to legitimize cruel interpersonal communications that rarely lead to better results but commonly lead to hurt feelings. And they are all based on the tired old assumptions that competition among human beings is a good thing.

In my experience, hurt feelings are responsible for more failures of companies reaching their goals, and more departures by talented employees than any other single factor.

It's not only higher salaries and better benefits --or cheap ideas like "radical candor" -- that affect outcomes in this world; it is cooperation, teamwork, mutual respect, compassion, and inspired leadership. Workers of all stripes want to feel inspired that they are working for something that matters.

The "radical candor" proponents would be better served by looking in the mirror and practicing radical self-criticism rather than focusing their sermons on others.

Then they might find out where the real problem lies.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* U.S. Retail Sales Rebound Despite Delta Variant (WSJ) 

* Asia supercharges vaccination efforts after slow start, U.S. lags (Reuters)

* The World Health Organization says global coronavirus cases have seen their “first substantial decline” in more than two months after the delta variant sparked widespread havoc, although cases in the U.S. remain high, notably among children. The agency has called for all countries to inoculate 70% of their populations by mid-2022 to get the pandemic under control. Lower-income nations, however, are far behind, prompting concern that the virus could continue to mutate. [HuffPost]

* The unvaccinated are 11 times more likely than the vaccinated to die from Covid-19. (California Today)

* China should consider vaccinating children aged under 12 against COVID - China CDC expert (Reuters)

* U.S. Booster Policy Is in Flux as Studies Add to Dissent -- A week before President Biden’s plan is to roll out, scientists are at odds about whether extra coronavirus shots are needed and for whom. (NYT)

* Patients, Oregon Hospitals Postpone Surgeries And Cancer Care (NPR)

* Moderna says COVID-19 vaccine protection wanes, makes case for booster (Reuters)

* Latest: China: Vaccinated 1 billion people, 72% of country (AP)

* Parenting a child under 12 in the age of delta: ‘It’s like a fire alarm every day’ -- 

With a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 yet to be approved, parents are weighing the risks of covid against the consequences of social isolation and their own livelihood. (WP)

* Why We’re Experiencing So Many Unusually Hot Summer Nights -- Across the U.S., nights are warming faster than days because of climate change, and this effect is amplified in cities. (NYT)

* How to Talk About Climate Change Across the Political Divide -- Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and evangelical Christian, has written a book that lays out strategies for discussing the climate crisis in a divided country. (New Yorker)

* Drenching rains to soak parts of Pacific Northwest, northern California that have faced wildfire risk (WP)

* UN chief urges ‘rapid’ emission cuts to curb climate change (AP)

* Red states advocating for the hunting and trapping of rebounding populations of grey wolves may have mucked up. Conservation groups filed a petition saying resurgent threats to wolf populations from humans should warrant the creatures being relisted as endangered. The Fish and Wildlife Service seemed to agree in an initial review Wednesday. [HuffPost]

* UN says world likely to miss climate targets despite COVID pause in emissions (Reuters)

* The ozone hole over the South Pole is now bigger than Antarctica (CNN)

* Idled by Covid, Thai taxis go green with mini-gardens on car roofs (AP)

* The S.F. airport will get four new shops, including an outpost of longtime local bookstore Green Apple Books. (SF Chronicle)

* EXCLUSIVE Facebook to target harmful coordination by real accounts using playbook against fake networks (Reuters)

* A new report by the U.N. human rights office warns that artificial intelligence has the potential to facilitate "unprecedented level of surveillance across the globe by state and private actors." (NPR)

* With resounding victory, Newsom takes control of his party in Calif. -- The Democratic governor said “Trumpism” was on the ballot in his recall race. His win has boosted his national profile. (WP) 

* Newsom Beat the Recall, Now Comes the Hard Part: Governing California -- Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing multiple crises. Ninety percent of California is in extreme drought. The median home price has eclipsed $800,000. Some 100,000 people are sleeping outside or in their cars. (NYT) 

* NASA Is Launching A New Telescope That Could Offer Some Cosmic Eye Candy (NPR)

* Well before the evacuation, a generation of Afghans escaped to Europe. Their experience has been dire. (WP) 

* Many in Rural Afghanistan Welcome an Unfamiliar Peace (WSJ)

* Sir Walter Raleigh's Colony Vanished Over 400 Years Ago. Scientists Are Still Looking (NPR)

* Democrats Face New Hurdle After Republicans Gerrymander All Left-Leaning Voters Into Single House District (The Onion)

***

"I Will Let You Go"

Daniel Ahearn

Put your hands in the water
Watch them go under
Put your hand to the light
Watch the light… come through

And I will let you go
And I will let you go

Put your time on the table
See who’ll sit down with you
Give your love to the ones
Who offer you bruise
After bruise, after bruise

And I will let you go
And I will let you go
And I will let you go

How we play fight
As we dance slow
The smile you makes
Saying ‘yes’ meaning ‘no’
Is so grey, so faint
The words stray in your mouth
With an ache

I’m standing in the water
With the light on my shoulder
The weight of the doubt
Turned me to glass
I’m through living in question
Dreaming the answers
No more paving the present
With pain from my past

And I will let you go
And I will let you go
And I will let you go
And I will let you go