nothing here but made up murders

issue 243 - 7th January, 2024

CJW: Happy New Year, gang! Hope you enjoyed our seasonal The Shining rewatch and took part yourself if you needed to fill in some holiday time (if you got any of that - I had very little myself).

Bit of a shorter issue this time out, and a bit of a mixed bag - but I'm sure you'll still find something of interest.

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Let's begin.

The Team

Daniel Harvey (DCH) - Designer, writer, provocateur. Pro-guillotine tech critic. @dancharvey
Marlee Jane Ward (MJW) - is also Mia Walsch. Writer & visual artist. Doominatrix & middle-aged greying goth.
Corey J. White (CJW) - author, voidwitch, bad milk blood robot.

Lidia Zuin (LZ) - Journalist, MA in semiotics, and PhD in Arts. Sci-fi writer, futurology researcher and essayist. @lidiazuin

Climate Change & The Environment

CJW: COP28 pledges so far not enough to limit warming to 1.5C, warns IEA - Al Jazeera (via Foreign Exchanges)

If everyone delivered on their commitments, it would lower global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 4 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030, the IEA said in an analysis.
That is about a third of the emissions gap that needs to be closed in the next six years to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as agreed to in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“They would not be nearly enough to move the world onto a path to reaching international climate targets,” the IEA said on Sunday.

Nobody really expects much of substance from COP these days, especially not a COP whose President is also the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. It would be a fucking joke if it weren't so depressingly unsurprising…

Related: Opec rails against fossil fuel phase-out at Cop28 in leaked letters - Damian Carrington at The Guardian

All the Fish We Cannot See - Moira Donovan at Hakai Magazine - CJW: An interesting piece on research into mesopelagic fish, the carbon they help sequester, and the potentials and impacts of harvesting them.

Geopolitics & Empire

MJW: The rush to preserve the sperm of slain soldiers exposes the deep militarism of Israeli society by Izeddin Araj at Mondoweiss

The ethical quagmires surrounding this form of reproduction are not novel, but in Israel, this phenomenon assumes a unique and deeply securitized dimension. It transcends domestic boundaries, reflecting the deep securitization and militarization of the nation. Servicemen are revered as the embodiment of national masculinity, and the act of posthumous fatherhood is perceived as a homage to these fallen soldiers — a means to ensure their legacy endures. A striking manifestation of this transformation from the intimate to the national is exemplified in cases where soldiers had no partners. In such cases, families often seek female volunteers, many of whom have never crossed paths with the deceased, to potentially carry their children. Shockingly, recruiting these volunteers has proven to be less challenging than expected. In fact, when families sought volunteers or advertised their quest through media and social platforms, they were met with overwhelming responses.

It’s weird and unsettling and patriarchal, and if it was so important, why not preserve your sperm before you head off to commit genocide?

MJW: Palestinian Suffering Is Never As Urgent As The Counterfactual by Samer Kalaf at Defector

The Washington Post article ran in the print edition with the headline “Four fragile lives found ended in evacuated Gaza hospital.” Ended by whom? The blame was concealed; the IDF and Red Cross denied any responsibility. The English language was perverted into unidiomatic nonsense by the contortions required of it. The babies could be mourned as a tragedy by the reader, so long as that sadness could not turn into anger at who killed them. It’s horrific that they were left for dead and eaten by worms. Could you imagine if it had happened to babies who mattered?

The convolutions that language is being put through to deny the responsibility of Israel for these crimes against humanity are staggering. Words don’t mean shit any more.

CJW: Journalists in Gaza Are Dying at an "Unprecedented" Rate - Christopher Curtis at The Rover

Every time the IDF kills a journalist — whether by accident or design — they’re destroying evidence. The people of Israel deserve to know if their military is committing war crimes that could escalate the conflict into a regional one. And how can voters in the West — citizens whose governments provide billions in arms to Israel every year — make sense of this war if they only get the IDF’s heavily redacted accounting of it?
With a military siege cutting off Gazans from the outside world, it’s impossible for outside journalists to make it into the war zone. All we have left are the Palestinian, Lebanese and Israeli reporters risking their lives to provide us with information on a conflict that’s killed an estimated 18,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis.
And those witnesses are dying.

The figures for journalists being killed in Gaza are shocking. Or would be if everything about this war on Palestinians wasn't so incredibly fucked.

CJW: Israeli Draft Resister Tal Mitnick Is a Hero - Ben Burgis at Jacobin

Mitnick lays out his case precisely and forcefully. “This land,” he begins, “has a problem.” Nothing that Israel or Hamas does can erase either the Israeli or the Palestinian population. Both are here to stay. The problem is “supremacy” — “the belief that this land belongs to only one people.”

I wish I'd been as savvy at 18 as this kid. Also, I'd assumed that refusing the draft would lead to a year in prison (not sure where I got that number from), but it's only 30 days - though it can be extended by another 30 at the court's whim (and possibly multiple times - the article isn’t clear on that point). I, of course, expect this kid to be made an example of, but I hope he sparks a wave of refusals.

Forgotten Fallout: The Unfulfilled Promise of Nuclear Justice for the Marshallese - Chloe Shrager at Inkstick Media
South Africa Is Right to Invoke the Genocide Convention Against Israel’s War on Gaza - Rohini Hensman at Jacobin.
A Brief History of Peace Talks, Israel, and the Palestinians - Zachary Foster at Foreign Exchanges. CJW: I might have shared a similar piece recently, but it's still important context.

Just the headlines:

US troops are occupying Syria's oil fields. Congress refuses to withdraw them - Ben Norton at Geopolitical Economy Report
Somalis Whose Relatives Were Killed by U.S. Strikes 'Have Yet To Receive Acknowledgement' - Spencer Ackerman at Forever Wars
Every Liberal Institution Will Support a Ceasefire Eventually, It’s Simply a Matter of How Many Palestinians Must Die First - Adam Johnson at The Column
Israel’s Assault on Gaza Is Unlike Any War in Recent Memory - Branko Marcetic at Jacobin

Science & Space

MJW: Parrots learn to make video calls to chat with other parrots, then develop friendships, Northeastern University researchers say (via Dr Damien Williams)

If given the choice, would the birds call each other? The answer, relayed in delighted squawks and head bobs, was a resounding yes. “Some strong social dynamics started appearing,” Kleinberger says. Not only did the birds initiate calls freely and seem to understand that a real fellow parrot was on the other end, but caretakers overwhelmingly reported the calls as positive experiences for their parrots. Some caregivers watched their birds learn skills from their video friends, including foraging, new vocalizations and even flying. “She came alive during the calls,” reported one.

Crying face emoji.

CJW: This is so very cool. I wish I had a bird friend to FaceTime with.

Tech & Design

CJW: Crypto hedge fund CEO may not exist; probe finds no record of identity - Ashley Belanger at Ars Technica

For years, rumors spread on social media that Steven Reece Lewis, the chief executive officer of a now-shuttered cryptocurrency hedge fund called HyperVerse, was a "fake person" who "doesn't exist." After its investigation, The Guardian has confirmed that no organization cited on his resume "can find any record of him."
According to The Guardian, Reece Lewis's qualifications all appear to be falsified in an effort to woo investors to sink money into HyperVerse. After HyperVerse collapsed, accused of operating as a pyramid scheme, the company suspended withdrawals. According to blockchain analysts, Chainalysis consumer losses in 2022 were estimated to exceed $1.3 billion. Thousands of consumers lost millions, The Guardian reported.

This is so egregious it’s almost funny (except for all the regular folk who lost money on this bullshit).

CJW: Police Say AI-Generated Article About Local Murder Is "Entirely" Made Up - Noor Al-Sibai at Futurism

> Before Christmas, the Southern New Jersey town of Bridgeton was best known for hosting the state's first zoo — but now, an artificial intelligence-generated news report about a murder that never happened may have put it on the map for all the wrong reasons.

> In a Facebook post, Bridgeton police said that a since-deleted article on the news aggregation site NewsBreak about a Christmas Day murder in the town is "entirely false."

Tell me again how LLMs are going to replace journalism…

They lost their kids to Fortnite - Luc Rinaldi at Macleans - CJW: No obvious pull quotes but/because the whole thing is interesting - on gaming addiction in children, and the "dark patterns" developers use to get people hooked and spending shitloads on so-called "free-to-play" video games.

Society & The Culture

No Exit: The Uncivil Folly of Libertarian Flight - David Bosworth at Hedgehog Review

Labour & Economics

‘Overworked and undervalued’: why junior doctors in England are striking - Serena Smith at Dazed - CJW: UK Labor is so brow beaten by the media I doubt they'll immediately address NHS issues when they (likely) take power in the next election, but they should realise what an easy win it would be to increase NHS funding. Too bad neoliberalism and austerity has them afraid of governing.

Books

CJW: How Infinite Jest tethered me to life when I almost let it go - Mala Chatterjee at Aeon

Hungerford, Lockwood and the mainstream ethos generally dismiss the book’s intended and actual audiences as white, male and not to be trusted, driven by Stockholm syndrome, sunk costs or delusions of self-interested grandeur in calling the book genius or important. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I find these critiques – so often snide or irreverent in their cadence – baffling, gaslighting, disempowering, at times even agonising. I can’t understand what they could possibly have to do with this book that I know as my friend, that I found myself in at my most alienated moment. And the bitter irony is that this ethos all concerns a man who, after writing such an empathetic book about mental illness, took his own life; for it is a collective instance of the very kind of empathy failure that I think Infinite Jest asks us to resist and helped me resist myself. I guess it is the least I can do for it now – and for my own survivor’s guilt – to join this ongoing chorus on the book with my own belting, discordant voice.

Initially I wasn't going to share this piece, precisely because of the argument referred to here. I understand wanting to shit on something that's perceived to be a signifier of a certain kind of terrible white guy, but I do think the book deserves better, not least for its empathy and the way it describes depression, as outlined in this piece.

I have a different relationship to my own depression now than when I read IJ, so this piece makes me wonder what I might get out of it on another read.

LZ: The Language of the Corpse, by Cody Dickerson

Short but super interesting reading on how Icelandic, Scandinavian, and Germanic societies used to use corpses for sorcery. More than addressing necromancy, the book also mentions quickly the Scandinavian cult of the dead, bog bodies, human bone charms, and some connections with other societies' culture and folklore. Only 75 pages, but really rich for those who want to get started in this topic.

LZ: Weird medieval guys, by Olivia Swarthout

Olivia is not a historian, but the admin of meme social media profiles where she shares weird and funny medieval illustrations. She compiled them in this book and organized them in a fun way: what if you were born in medieval times? What would be your name? What would be your profession? What monsters linger in the shadows, ready to kill you before dysentery? It's a cupboard book as someone on Goodreads described, but it's a very fun and beautiful work. Quick and lighthearted read.

LZ: Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

I thought I wrote about this book previously, but it seems I didn't. I finished it by the end of November and it was a book that a friend from work lent to me. It's a bit of a long book as you follow the childhood and adulthood of the two protagonists, but it's interesting to see once again how an author gets their most acclaimed work as the one where they create a "fanfiction" of their own life.

I mentioned that when I recommended Septology by Jon Fosse, and Zevin received lots of praise for this book about a Korean-Jewish-American boy. Turns out Zevin has the same ancestry and also lives in Los Angeles, like the characters. It's not an ordinary love story of childhood sweethearts although you would love it to be.

Though it's full of joy and references to classic video games, as well as a very realistic portrayal of the game industry, the book can also hit you hard in moments of tension. I don't want to spoil the read, but if you don't hate Sadie by the end of the book, then we're not good.

Movies + TV

LZ: Women Talking (2022)

When you see such a stellar casting like the one here (Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand), you think the movie can never go wrong… and it doesn't, sort of. Except for the fact that Frances has barely any lines and screen time and Ben Whishaw is portrayed as the dream feminist man in a dodgy way – as in a man who is always apologizing for being a man. But the talking part, which takes most of the movie, is so chaotic and full of emotions and people passing out all of a sudden that it felt real, genuine. It's a bit of a white feminist take as all characters are white American women, so there's no racial commentary and there's a slight nod to transsexuality though that comes as a consequence from abuse. But all in all, I guess it hit home because there's a lot of discussion about forgiveness and revenge, being defeated by exhaustion, and the yo-yo behavior of being engaged and disengaged from feminist/gender roles discussions. Not very insightful per se, but can prompt some interesting reflections.

Music

LZ: Fortress of the Pearl

If you like ambient and atmospheric black metal, here's my new discovery for you. This Greek band really surprised me not only for their music but also for the album artworks. The most recent albums are more ambient, almost dungeon synth, whereas the first one (a single, in fact) is more black metal though quite melodic. If you like Olhava, another band that I recommended here, go for it!

Art

CJW: Photographer Mikko Lagerstedt Illuminates the Magical Solitude of the Nordic Winter - at Colossal

A photo of a thin tree (pine?) standing out from a forest background. An eerie haze glows across the ground.

Steeling against snowstorms and the brutal cold of winter, photographer Mikko Lagerstedt devotes himself to documenting the frozen solitudes of his native Finland. His ethereal images frame vast swaths of land and sea with very little human life, capturing fog lifting at daybreak or the brilliant dance of the auroras.

Something for our Southern Hemisphere readers to help them try and keep cool.

The Self-Promotion

LZ: Welcome to the freak show

This might be a controversial take, but some time ago I was wondering… what if influencer marketing and social media have turned the internet into a new version of the freak shows? Instead of going to see someone's physical disabilities and be entertained by their "freakiness", we are now following mentally ill people and allowing them to commercialize the exposition of, for instance, manic episodes. I add some examples from Brazil, but all in all a quick Google search for "influencer suicide" tells a lot about what's going on.

MJW: This is super interesting, especially through the lens of having been manic on the internet (I was unfortunately not able to profit from it in any way.)

MJW: I’ve got a new article up as Mia on the Tryst Blog, about retiring from sex work, writing, community, and identity.