Part the First: Where Have All the Grownups Gone?<\/strong>\u00a0 Corey Robin is always worth reading<\/a> (the first edition of The Reactionary Mind<\/em> is much better than the second), and lately he has been more active publicly, here asking about the grownups<\/a>:<\/p>\n For a long time now, I\u2019ve thought that you\u2019re never really a grownup until you realize that there are no grownups. We all have a fantasy, inherited from childhood, that somewhere, someone, is truly in charge and knows what they\u2019re doing and has got things under control. I remember the moment when I realized that\u2019s not true. There is no such person. It\u2019s on you, me, us, to try to be a little wiser than we are, which involves, as a first step, giving up the fantasy that anyone in the actual world knows entirely what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This was followed by his take on Andrew Cuomo flailing impotently at Zohran Mamdani.\u00a0 We have all seen it, no matter what we do for a living, and in the academic world, well, there are too many people haunting the halls who have never had to work for a living.\u00a0 In politics, I did think that Susie Wiles<\/a> would be the grownup in the room at the White House, but it could be that grownups have no power to tame the feral politco<\/a>:<\/p>\n One of the elements of W.E.B. Du Bois\u2019s argument in Black Reconstruction that surprised me most the last time, or maybe the time before that, that I taught it, was just how much attention he pays to the Radical Republican\u2019 vision of congressional power and congressional government over and against a Constitution based on presidential power and presidential government.<\/p>\n I bring this up today as I read about Trump\u2019s plans<\/a> (after denying such plans) to demolish entirely the East Wing of the White House, which are grotesque in every way you can imagine, for the sake of building the biggest ballroom ever. Incidentally, that desire, and its frustration, is a recurrent grievance in Trump\u2019s many complaints in one of his many campaign books prior to 2016, about how he repeatedly called the White House to offer to pay for a big new ballroom there and how Obama, snoot that he was, never would take his call.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Congressional democracy?\u00a0 DuBois thought it could exist.\u00a0 And maybe that is what we should be working toward, long-term, however long that term lasts:<\/p>\n It is a vision a world that does not hinge upon what happens every four years, in one election, of a world where one individual can\u2019t impose his vision of a ballroom in the sky upon all of us, of a world in which our actions and those of our representatives, on a day to day, more proximate (in time and space) basis, matter most.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Hey, a boy can dream, but I have been voting since the midterm election of 1974.\u00a0 Still dreaming.<\/p>\n Part the Second: We Finally Get that Hour Back, for a Few Months.<\/strong>\u00a0 I remember when daylight savings time<\/a> (DST) was restarted in the late 1960s.\u00a0 It meant that in summer we could stay out for an extra hour after supper, and when we rode our bicycles to the softball games at the recreation department we could watch twilight descend over the salt marshes.\u00a0 Later when I was a freshman in college and the time did not change back in the fall, I went to first period class that began at 7:50 am in the cold and dark rain, while successfully avoiding getting flattened by a university bus.\u00a0 Anyway, the argument continues about the utility of DST in An Indigenous approach shows how changing the clocks for daylight saving time runs counter to human nature \u2013 and nature itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is that time again. Time to wonder: Why do we turn the clocks forward and backward twice a year? Academics<\/a>, scientists<\/a>, politicians<\/a>, economists<\/a>, employers<\/a>, parents<\/a> \u2013 and just about everyone else you will interact with this week \u2013 are likely debating a wide range of reasons for and against daylight saving time.<\/p>\n But the reason is right there in the name: It\u2019s an effort to \u201csave\u201d daylight hours, which some express as an opportunity for people to \u201cmake more use of<\/a>\u201d time when it\u2019s light outside.<\/p>\n But as an Indigenous person who studies environmental humanities<\/a>, this sort of effort, and the debate about it, misses a key ecological perspective.<\/p>\n Biologically speaking, it is normal, and even critical, for nature to do more during the brighter months and to do less during the darker ones. Animals go into hibernation<\/a>, plants into dormancy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Humans are intimately interconnected with, interdependent on, and interrelated to nonhuman beings, rhythms and environments. Indigenous knowledges<\/a>, which despite their complex, diverse and plural forms, amazingly cohere in reminding humans that we too are an equal part of nature. Like trees and flowers, we are beings who also need winter to rest and summer to bloom.<\/p>\n As far as we humans know, we are the only species that chooses to fight against our biological presets, regularly changing our clocks, miserably dragging ourselves into and out of bed at unnatural hours.<\/p>\n The reason, many scholars agree, is that capitalism teaches humans that they are separate from, and superior to, nature<\/a> \u2013 like the point on top of a pyramid. That, and I argue, that capitalism wants people to work the same number of hours year-round, no matter the season. This mindset runs counter to the way Indigenous people have lived for thousands of years\u2026<\/p>\n In my view, people might be better off if the discussion about changing the clocks in the fall and spring wasn\u2019t about how much time we can \u201cmake use of\u201d or how much daylight we might \u201csave,\u201d but rather about reducing the number of hours we are expected to be made useful \u2013 and profitable \u2013 to secure a more just and sustainable existence for all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sounds like a plan to me.\u00a0 But while the Neoliberal Dispensation continues to dispense with every human need in favor of the \u201cneeds\u201d of the economy, for as long as the economy creeps along, I\u2019ll keep changing my clocks just like everyone else in the United States.\u00a0 Except our fellow Americans in Hawai\u2019i and Arizona.\u00a0 I have watched the summer sunset in both states, an hour earlier.\u00a0 Seemed about right.<\/p>\n Part the Third: When <\/strong>gCaptain<\/em><\/strong><\/a> Writes About CDC, It Is Probably Time to Get Your Affairs in Order<\/strong>.\u00a0 gCaptain<\/em> is one of my regular stops about all things shipping on the seas and it covered this accident<\/a>, which happened in a place I know very well.\u00a0 But now we have the good people at gCaptain<\/em> covering this: Kennedy Orders CDC Probe Into Offshore Wind Health Risks<\/a>.\u00a0 The hits, they just keep on coming:<\/p>\n Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff to probe the potential harms of offshore wind farms, according to people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump\u00a0marshals his administration to thwart the clean energy source he loathes.<\/p>\n In late summer, HHS instructed CDC\u2019s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to prepare research about wind farms\u2019 impact on fishing businesses, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Kennedy has personally met with NIOSH director John Howard about the issue and listed particular experts for Howard\u2019s team to contact. The office of the US surgeon general has also been involved in the initiative, which HHS leadership \u2014\u00a0prior to the ongoing government shutdown \u2014\u00a0had aimed to have completed within a couple months.<\/p>\n Among the offshore wind health impacts that HHS staff have investigated is the electric magnetic frequency generated from undersea cables used to connect power from the machines to the electric grid, one of the people said. Wind proponents<\/a> say they aren\u2019t harmful. HHS spokespeople didn\u2019t respond to inquiries.<\/p>\n Trump, who fought against a wind project within view of his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, has long shown contempt for wind power, claiming without evidence that the farms cause cancer, and dismissing them as overly expensive eye-sores. His efforts against them have included rescinding permits and halting construction for wind projects worth billions of dollars. This includes the Revolution Wind farm being constructed off the coast of Rhode Island by Orsted A\/S, which was already 80% complete when it received a stop work order in August that cited national security concerns.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Well, Trump and his minions are not the only NIMBYs on offshore wind farms<\/a>.\u00a0 But with this we passed \u201cridiculous\u201d five exits ago.\u00a0 Might wind farms disrupt the marine habitat?\u00a0 Undoubtedly.\u00a0 But their effect is piddling compared to Melissa<\/a> and bleached coral<\/a> and North Atlantic right whales killed<\/a> (only a few hundred left) because we leave our detritus in the sea and will not enforce a nautical speed limit where the whales are calving.<\/p>\n Part the Fourth: A Note on AI<\/strong>.\u00a0 What is it good for?\u00a0 One would imagine that it will eventually be good for what the internet has become good for, as noted by this link from Statista.com<\/a> that lists the most visited websites in the world.\u00a0 In first place is Google, no matter how enshittified it has become.\u00a0 No surprise there.\u00a0 The eighth, between Wikipedia and Yahoo is no surprise, either.\u00a0 Now comes OpenAI<\/a>. From The New York Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve read more smut at work than you can possibly imagine, all of it while working at OpenAI.<\/p>\n Back in the spring of 2021, I led our product safety team and discovered a crisis<\/a> related to erotic content. One prominent customer was a text-based adventure role-playing game that used our A.I. to draft interactive stories based on players\u2019 choices. These stories became a hotbed of sexual fantasies, including encounters involving children and violent abductions \u2014 often initiated by the user, but sometimes<\/a> steered<\/a> by the A.I. itself. One analysis<\/a> found that over 30 percent of players\u2019 conversations were \u201cexplicitly lewd.\u201d<\/p>\n After months of grappling with where to draw the line on user freedom, we ultimately prohibited our models from being used for erotic purposes. It\u2019s not that erotica is bad per se, but that there were clear <\/strong>warning<\/strong><\/a> signs<\/strong><\/a> of users\u2019 intense emotional attachment to A.I. chatbots. Especially for users who seemed to be struggling with mental health problems, volatile sexual interactions seemed risky. Nobody wanted to be the morality police, but we lacked ways to measure and manage erotic usage carefully. We decided A.I.-powered erotica would have to wait.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It won\u2019t wait.\u00a0 It can\u2019t, or another AI giant will go all-in on bots that fill the need.\u00a0 Scary times.<\/p>\n Part the Fifth: News You Can Use if Snakebites Are Likely to Be in Your Future.<\/strong>\u00a0 In a previous life I worked with a very good scientist who was fascinated with snake venoms and how they did their damage.\u00a0 There is a lot of fundamental protein chemistry, structure, and function in venoms.\u00a0 Having grown up in snake heaven, where Crotalus adamanteus<\/em><\/a> and Agkistrodon piscivorous<\/em><\/a> are common, I have seldom ventured too far into the bushes without boots (although I have never found a pair of snake boots that matched those of my grandfather \u2013 thick leather with laces all the way up to the knee).<\/p>\n A news article in Nature<\/em> has the good news: Single antivenom protects against 17 different snakebites<\/a>:<\/p>\n An antivenom using antibodies from a llama and an alpaca can neutralize venom from some of the world\u2019s most venomous snakes, according to a study published today in Nature<\/em>1<\/a>. When administered to mice, the treatment conferred protection against toxins from 17 African snake species and reduced skin damage caused by venoms.<\/p>\n Snakebites<\/a> are a neglected public-health issue that is estimated to kill roughly 20,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa every year. Around 300,000 snakebites occur annually in this region, and tissue death from venom leads to approximately 10,000 amputations.<\/p>\n Current antivenom treatments are made by injecting large animals, such as horses, with small doses of snake venom. The horses produce antibodies against the venom, and the horse plasma is extracted and used to treat bites in people. But these antivenoms are mostly specific to a single snake species.<\/p>\n It can be difficult to identify the snake behind the bite, and that makes providing timely treatment difficult, says study co-author Anne Ljungars, a bioengineer at the Technical University of Denmark in Kongens Lyngby.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Now, this is very good science.\u00a0 There are many fewer different venomous snakes in North America, and I expect emergency rooms in the US to be stocked with a similar multivalent anti-venom against rattlesnakes, water moccasins, and copperheads soon.\u00a0 Our dogs will appreciate this, too.<\/p>\n Part the Sixth: How We Should Think About AI While Dealing With It Willy Nilly<\/strong>.\u00a0 After three years, I still have not asked ChatGPT a question and I have ignored prompts from other \u201cvendors\u201d to do so.\u00a0 In January and February, I will be tutoring medical students in the Gastrointestinal System and Hematology.\u00a0 This time around I will ask my students to close their laptops and put away their tablets and actually discuss the cases in the syllabus.\u00a0 I imagine the pushback will be strong, but one thing does encourage me.\u00a0 Earlier this week several students came to my office and asked when we were going to stop letting ChatGPT think for students in our tutorial groups, which is how we deliver most of our curriculum.\u00a0 Not everyone has fallen for the magic fairy dust!<\/p>\n\n
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