𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗

thenewatlantis.comHow the System WorksA series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life — and what happens if we don’t maintain them

1 May 2025

My thanks to the New Atlantis, letting me do this series on "How the System Works," and for removing the paywall today. It's maddening how little attention our society--and our political leaders, who take cues from us--pay to the systems that have made things better for so many billions.

now

They don't produce *literature*? I don't know that much about Arab writing, but even I know that Naguib Mahfouz (who, contra RFKJr., won the Nobel), Ghassan Khanafi, Mahmoud Dharwish, and Adonis (pen name) are pretty terrific.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

12m

A lawyer pal in Nevada saw the Justice Dept press release on the left and passed it on to me (I was raised in WA, my sibs still live there), along with the screen-cap on the right. "Wanna bet history repeats itself?" he said. "These guys are gluttons for punishment."

science.orgLate Holocene reexpansion of the Laurentide Ice SheetDuring interglaciations, the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), which is the largest of the Pleistocene ice sheets, retreats to Arctic Canada, where it achieves a minimum configuration. The reexpansion of th...

20h

Two cheers for global warming? New Science paper: the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin I., last remaining bit of the Laurentide Ice Sheet that once covered most of N America, restarted growing ~2K yrs ago but began shrinking ~1960 due to climate change, ending oncoming ice age. /v @erleellis.bsky.social

wired.comInside the Supermassive Debate Over the James Webb Telescope’s ‘Little Red Dots’The Webb telescope sees tiny red dots everywhere. Astronomers can’t agree on what they are, but some believe they may be enormous stars with black holes inside.

23h

Fun Wired story about the furious debate over the "little red dots" seen by the Webb telescope. “'The field has gotten very polarized,' said Anna-Christina Eilers, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies little red dots."

An absolutely crazy amount of water has come into Lake Powell in the last few days--it jumped a foot in the last 24 hours. Problem is, the water level is still way lower than it was last year and the year before. powell.uslakes.info/Level/

nytimes.comThis Is What America’s Utility Bill Crisis Looks Like (Gift Article)Record heat and a rising demand for electricity are closing in on Oklahoma families trying to keep the lights on and the AC running.

Great on-the-ground NYTimes report on what soaring energy prices look like to Oklahoma homeowners who're facing a grim choice between heatstroke and going broke. But I wish the author had noted that there's well-known ways to take a big bite out of the problem--and that Oklahoma's screwed 'em up...

koco.comOklahoma halts weatherization program after audit reveals $663,000 in questionable spendingThe state has suspended a program aimed at helping low-income families with energy efficiency after an audit uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in mismanaged funds.

Infuriatingly, OK *has* an insulation program, the Weatherization Assistance Program. But WAP was badly run, super-slow, and maybe corrupt. Incredibly, Gov. Stitt responded by shutting down WAP last spring in central OK, where everybody lives. Thousands of homes were scheduled to be treated.

Now ppl in those homes are just sitting there cooking, OK pals tell me. In other words, a lot of this suffering could've been alleviated if the gov't had got its act together and fixed its existing programs. Not to pile on, but OK is generally super-inefficient--here's NREL on what could be saved.

All the people in the Times article obviously have un-insulated roofs, like lots of people in OK. Insulating roofs (unlike insulating walls) is cheap and fast in most homes--you just cut holes in the ceiling and blow in insulation. It really cuts bills, esp in the south, where the sun blasts you.

I have not read everything Roger King has written, but I also have never read anything I didn't think was really interesting from him. Looking forward to this new one.

Roger King@rogerfgking.bsky.social

Capitalism has always known where to find a desire. The Industrial Revolution of Love by Roger King is forthcoming November 24th from @regalhouse.bsky.social.

theguardian.com‘The time of monsters’: everyone is quoting Gramsci – but what did he actually say?Line handily sums up people’s bewilderment at state of world, but it isn’t quite what the Marxist thinker wrote

Amused to learn from this old Guardian article that the Gramsci quote so common now--"The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters"--is apparently just another terrible mistranslation by Slavoj Žižek. The actual Gramsci quote is duller but IMHO...

...a much better description of his time and maybe ours: “In questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi più svariati” (In this interregnum a great variety of morbid phenomena appear). Just read the paper and boy those morbid phenomena are all over the place.

amazon.comThe Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World: Philbrick, Nathaniel: 9780525562238: Amazon.com: BooksThe Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World [Philbrick, Nathaniel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and t...

~100 pages in and really having fun with The Rush, Nathaniel Philbrick's new history of the California Gold Rush. Really captures some of the seething, hot-brained craziness at the base of California history, and how it pushed toward the Civil War.

So, an Atlantic writer says 2 months ago that reading is dead and a New Yorker writer now argues the opposite. How to decide which is more likely to be true? If I had to investigate, the 1st person I'd call would be Robert Darnton, a historian who has spent ~50 yrs researching books, publishing...

...and: "In America, the reading of books is up. Sales of print books have increased nearly 25% from a decade ago. ... A survey by the Pew found 38% of American adults read 1-5 books in 2025, and 14% read at least 20. ... for the generation now entering college, book sales are at a lifetime high."

Darnton's stuff is terrific, by the way, if you don't know it. A few favorites:

......and the spread of reading since early modern times. And the New Yorker guy did, and Darnton's pretty clear what he thinks. The other thing I might do is look at actual book sales, which aren't exactly the same as reading, but a decent proxy. And the New Yorker guy did...

No idea if this is actually true, but Thom Tillis is saying in this Politico interview he voted to confirm Hegseth and Kennedy because he thought there'd be a quid pro quo that Tillis would get the Trump Administration to OK federal recognition for the Lumbee. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

The Lumbee are a mixed Indigenous-African-American group in North Carolina that don't neatly fit US racial categories and as a result have been treated horribly by state and federal gov'ts for 200 years. Federal recognition of their Indigenous status would be a long-overdue step forward.

A neighbor just sent me this picture of a pond down the street from us. This fall in New England has been spectacular--one glorious day after another. I just take a few steps outside and a silly grin steals across my mug.

@tamarhaspel.bsky.social and I and our respective spouses made some apple cider the other day and it was like an advertisement for New England life and we were saying so often "Wow, this is an amazing day" that the Chamber of Commerce should've paid us. Photo by Tamar, which is why she's not in it.

worksinprogress.coEverything rhymes with porcelain - Works in Progress MagazineA pricey kitchen stove left Charles C Mann with a question: what on earth is Dekton?

I got curious about AI-detection software and started poking around and right away came across this claim. I remember my college stats prof saying "Claims of perfection in real-world tests are just a sign that you have a crappy test."

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 reposted

Tamar Haspel

@tamarhaspel.bsky.social

Porcelain has a fascinating history. This excellent @charlescmann.bsky.social piece gives an overview, but if you want more, THE ARCANUM by Janet Gleeson tells the story of European porcelain in detail.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗@charlescmann.bsky.social

Bad news: I have found editors who share my fascination with the ordinary. These guys foolishly let me try to find the answer to the question, "What the hell is Dekton? And why are the people who make my induction cooktop trying to force me to buy it?"

worksinprogress.coEverything rhymes with porcelain - Works in Progress MagazineA pricey kitchen stove left Charles C Mann with a question: what on earth is Dekton?

I'm a broken record on this, but Randall Jarrell's "Pictures from an Institution" (1954) is an amazing piece of writing. So funny, so shrewd, so fluidly written--page after page of stuff like this.

Guys, coffee is meant to cheer you and invigorate your morning.

I know they are vital to our local ecosystem, but I still don't like it when the vultures are sitting on our roof. And I like it even less when they're sitting on our damn car.

My claim is restaurants like this are the best, not only because of the omakase feel of the limited menu, but because the cooks are only giving you stuff they are really good at. Like, a lot of places with big menus you realize that no human can cook that many different things well.

ashley fairbanks@ziibiing.com

grabbing lunch from this place that has went sort of viral locally. she only cooks one dish a day, only sells in-person at 11:30 until she sells out. it’s funny how the lack of options now feels like an amenity. like yes, girl, don’t make me make any decisions.

It’s Columbus Day, as Trump keeps saying. What to make of it, given Indigenous peoples’ wholly merited dislike of it? In general, it's a problem when a national holiday angers millions in that nation--especially when the reason for the anger has nothing to do with the reason for the holiday. 1/14

Columbus Day could be the same thing—a complex holiday that mixes all the subsequent elements of our history. It should be possible to set aside a day to acknowledge past injustices, the good around us in the present, and our hopes for a better tomorrow.

If you really wanted to, that holiday could, I guess, even be named after Columbus.

All we know suggests Guacanagaríx was a good guy—and a symbol of the encounter as it could have/should have been. How about Guacanagaríx Day? Same holiday, same meaning. Just a different guy. One who IMO better fits the hopes any national holiday should convey.

If you insist on Columbus himself, then the alternative might be to rethink the meaning of the holiday. There are holidays we celebrate (Xmas) and holidays we observe (Memorial Day). Nobody says, “Yay, these people died!” on Memorial Day. Instead we mourn and honor their sacrifices.

Today the focus of the holiday has switched from "honoring Italian-Americans" to "cheering the discovery of America." OK, so if we're looking at the first enduring encounter between Europe and the Americas...

The main character in the encounter was Guacanagaríx, the Taino leader who befriended Columbus. When Columbus shipwrecked the Santa Maria, Guacanagaríx led the efforts to save the sailors. When Columbus had to leave men behind, G helped build La Navidad, 1st Euro settlement in the Americas.

In addition, he had no tie to the Americas—to the end of his days, he insisted he had landed in Asia. For him, “the Americas” didn’t exist, and he vigorously disputed the idea that he had "discovered" them.

If you want to honor Italo-Americans (a fine idea!), why not pick one with a real bond to the US? Enrico Fermi, Franco Modigliani, Salvador Luria, etc. Me, I’d love a Fermi Day. A Nobel-winning physicist, a great guy, anti-Fascist, a Manhattan project star who fought nuclear proliferation, etc.

A bit of history: Columbus Day became a holiday in 1934 to honor Italian-Americans. Its main backers were the Knights of Columbus and Generoso Pope, a sand-and-gravel magnate who owned a bunch of Italian-language newspapers, and who secured NY's Italian vote for FDR.

The thing is, Columbus is a terrible choice to honor *Italians.* After leaving Italy at 26, he never went back home, never wrote in Italian, and never talked about his background. Historians nearly unanimously believe he was ashamed of his background and even tried to hide it.

kentuckylantern.comMeasles hits the 100-case mark in Kentucky • Kentucky LanternKentucky has now confirmed more than 100 cases of measles as the state grapples with its highest case load this century.

Kentucky doing its bit to keep the trendline going. Note how each wave of infection is lasting longer and each crest (2008, 2011, 2014, 2019, 2026) is rising higher than the one before. Not great.

Kentucky Lantern@kentuckylantern.com

Measles hits the 100-case mark in Kentucky From @sarahelizabethladd.bsky.social kentuckylantern.com/2026/10/09/m...

heatmap.newsPity the Next Insurance Commissioner of OklahomaThe state’s market is in such disarray, a Democrat actually stands a shot at winning the office.

Oklahoma, land of weather: "In most of [Oklahoma], even at the tiny geographical scale of an individual roof, you have about a 1-in-10 chance each year of seeing 2-inch or larger hail... over the last 4 years, nearly 50% of Oklahoma roofs were hit by severe hail—the highest rate nationwide."

My sister, upon hearing this news: "Just be grateful he didn't dig them up."

🏃‍♂️The Runner🏃‍♂️@therunnner.bsky.social

Hegseth removed Colin Powell’s name from a list of notable Americans buried at Arlington Cemetery. Hegseth also removed the names of every person of color and every woman on the same list Only white men were left in place.

news.meaww.comFact Check: Did Pete Hegseth remove Colin Powell’s name from Arlington Cemetery?The claim resurfaced after after GOP lawmakers expressed concerns over Pete Hegseth's ouster of officials

On further looking into this, the claim apparently isn't true. Seems Hegseth did tinker with the listings, removing racial information and the like, but Powell's still on the list. news.meaww.com/fact-check-d...

nytimes.comWhat if the Best Ideas Are Already Here, Waiting to Be Rediscovered? (Gift Article)“Sleeping Beauties,” by the musician David Byrne, explores artistic and scientific innovations that were overlooked before being embraced.

Proof, as if any more were needed, that talent is not distributed fairly or evenly. David Byrne, on top of everything else, has apparently written an excellent Malcolm Gladwell book. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/b...

academic.oup.comNuclear archaeology reassesses Heisenberg’s last reactor experimentAbstract. The B8 pile, built in April 1945, was a natural uranium, heavy water reactor experiment and the culmination of Nazi Germany’s nuclear program. It

New PNAS study argues that the Nazi nuclear threat didn't exist--they simply didn't have enough uranium to build an A-bomb: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar... Good news coverage in Science: www.science.org/content/arti...

talkingpointsmemo.comOh Hey, More AI Stuff – Is This Our Reliable Narrator?Yet another update on the running AI discussion. Here’s an interview Ezra...

@joshtpm.bsky.social: "LLMs work in unpredictable ways because... we just don’t know what we’re telling them to do. The whole idea of them 'going rogue' is just a non sequitur. It’s like saying my paint went rogue because it didn’t dry right after I used the wrong kind of paint."