(Almost) New Year's edition
Everything goes through the Americafilter
It used to bother me when people would wish me Merry Christmas. Sometimes I would even wish them Happy Hanukkah in response. But I no longer care. Although a very ignorant strain of Evangelical Christianity exerts outsize influence on this country's politics, laws, and culture, at the same time, the United States is very good at taking traditions and sublimating them to capitalism, or just simply messing with them. What would early Christians make of trees, lights, an excess of gift-giving, and does that even matter? Regarding Thanksgiving, school children were taught for a long time, that it commemorates some kind of shared table between Puritans and Native Americans, which may not be historically accurate. Ask a random person, “what does Christmas mean to you,” and they will likely answer, time with family, celebrating and giving thanks. That's not a religious answer. So, what does a Christmas tree with ornaments from Bed, Bath & Beyond have to do with Jesus? Not much.
While I don't typically wish people Merry Christmas unless I know they are nominally Christian, or claim to celebrate the holiday, it no longer bothers me when people say it to me. It's not like these people are going around asking if I've been saved.
I've been thinking lately about this idea that societies "evolve". I hear people make this claim from time to time, often it is the Progressives with whom I throw in most of my lot. But this idea, in the long view, is false. For example, in Berlin in the 1930s, there was a culture of gender fluidity and a certain acceptance, at least in the subculture, of LGBTQ people. There were pioneering researchers and scientists in that place and era as well. 90 years ago! Back then, some people may have may have spoken of society evolving, but we know that following, in came the Nazis, who of course ruined everything.
The above image is from the Amazon show Transparent, which I very highly recommend. Brilliantly plotted, acted, a beautiful story of a mess of a family and each member's attempt to find them self.
We are now in an era where once again, U.S. society is taking a more expansive view of sex and gender, and that is a positive development. I wish I could be more optimistic and say that our attitudes and laws will continue to move in a positive direction on that front, but that's not necessarily what will happen.
Technology changes, modes of communication change, but human nature doesn't change. Human nature is the constant. One could be optimistic and think that, with so much of the world's knowledge at our fingertips, that movements and attitudes based on counterfactual claims or other such nonsense, ie, flat earthers, Tr*mp sycophants, etc., would continue to diminish as it became easier and easier to see what is actually true. Unfortunately, so far, it doesn't seem to be working that way, at least in the United States. It's a strange irony that you can spend an hour on Wikipedia and learn more about the cosmos than Copernicus or Aristotle ever knew, but we still have tens of millions of adults who won't acknowledge very basic facts of science, or election outcomes.
The current surge of counterfactual nonsense is happening despite it being easier than ever to find out basic facts about our world. In fact, it is ironically empowered by the internet. But it's not the fault of the internet, it happens because people make deliberate decisions based on either ideology or profit motive, to promulgate nonsense, and unfortunately, in the United States, ignorance is often still king.
BEN, I THOUGHT YOUR NEWSLETTER WAS AN ANTIDOTE TO THIS KIND OF MEME-INFESTED NONSENSE I FIND ON SOCIAL MEDIA!
Rodent makes epic, Shawshank Redemption-style escape from "jail"
Yes, I know. But if you're going to watch one silly video this month, I would go with this one.
One more reason not to use Zoom
I recognize that some people feel they are stuck with Facebook, as it's where all their friends and their groups are. In fact, it's hard to live a modern life while staying detached from Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, etc. But in the case of Zoom, there are several alternatives.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and two U.S. Attorney’s offices have been investigating Zoom for months…The videoconferencing company disclosed the legal and regulatory scrutiny the same day a former employee was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for assisting China to block a remote gathering on the service commemorating the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising.
Zoom has a history of doing shitty stuff like this. Of course, many businesses and institutions have contracted with the company for one year or more, and can't easily pull out of these agreements. It would be better for them to put pressure on the company to change their ways, because there are several other perfectly good web conferencing tools. A large part of the company's success is due to a rapid scale up as many people shifted to remote work. Zoom is easy to install and use, and offers a certain amount of access for free, and people do love free.
Consider Skype, WebEx, GoToMeeting, or my favorite free alternative, Jit.si.
How Children Took the Smallpox Vaccine around the World
In 1803, nearly two dozen orphan boys endured long voyages and physical discomfort to transport the smallpox vaccine to Spain’s colonies.
I had thought vaccines were a more modern invention, but apparently the concept goes back to at least the early 1800s.
And so it was that, “in the era before refrigeration, freeze-dried vaccines, and jet aircraft,” writes medical historian John Bowers, “the successful circumnavigation of the globe with the vaccine…rested on a single medium—little boys.” During the long crossing, approximately twenty-two orphans who had not previously contracted smallpox or cowpox were “vaccinated in pairs every ninth or tenth day,” via arm-to-arm inoculation (taking lymph from an unbroken pustule on a recently vaccinated boy and introducing it under the skin of another). This created a vaccine chain—the vaccine remained active and viable for the entire journey.
This is such a fascinating bit of history. The smallpox vaccine was developed with the help of people who had developed immunity to cowpox, a similar infection.
How Children Took the Smallpox Vaccine around the World - JSTOR Daily
In 1803, nearly two dozen orphan boys endured long voyages and physical discomfort to transport the smallpox vaccine to Spain's colonies.
What if the success or failure of sports teams were a stand-in for election results denial?
I sure hope I can stop thinking and talking about this one soon. We must remember that just because our new president and vice president will be sworn in January 20th, doesn't mean all the people screaming about election fraud will magically except reality. If you have any of those such folks in your family or among your friend group, they might appreciate this take. It's also funny.
CHARITY, REAALLLLY EFFECTIVE
I was turned on to GiveWell a few years ago by optimizer/brilliant-but-mildly-annoying writer/podcaster Tim Ferriss. GiveWell’s goal is “to produce the world's top research on where to give. Free, for everyone.” They identify “top charities by assessing them along four criteria: Their evidence of effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, transparency, and room for more funding.” That's it. There's a much longer discussion here about something called effective altruism, perhaps I'll save that for another day. But in short, GiveWell is all about finding the best Return On Investment (ROI) for your charitable dollar. That means they may fund charities whose work doesn't appear particularly sexy or exciting, perhaps it doesn't grab headlines, but it works really well.
Between now and year's end, they will match your first donation up to $250. If you're planning to give a few bucks yet this year, GiveWell is an excellent choice.
THE WONDERS OF LANGUAGE
Podcast recommendation: Lexicon Valley
John McWhorter is a professor of linguistics who shares with great enthusiasm how languages influence each other, how words, phrases, and constructions change over time, and he identifies trends in the way people talk, for example uptalk and vocal fry. Did you know:
The use of "do,” as in “do you play soccer often,” is somewhat unique to English. Think about it for moment, why are we sticking “do” everywhere? To add further confusion, there is also the other meaning of the word, to perform an action. This leaves us with sentences like “do you do that often?” Doesn't that sound weird to you? In other languages, not all languages, but I can certainly speak for Spanish and Portuguese, you would simply say “you play soccer often?” and the intonation of the phrase would indicate that it is a question.
The word “bye” is the result of some major word chopping. The original phrase was “God be with ye,” and it gradually lost words and morphed until it became simply “bye”, or the slightly longer, “goodbye”.
Around the world, it is very common for people to speak multiple dialects. For example, in Egypt, people learn what is considered classical Arabic. It is my understanding that this is pretty much the same Arabic as you would find in the Koran. This is used for formal occasions, like a job interview. People also speak Egyptian Arabic, which uses somewhat different words, sounds different from classical Arabic, and is in every day use. In Germany, some recent immigrants speak a version of German that is somewhat simplified from High German. In the United States, we have Black English - a distinct dialect from operative English, one with its own grammar, modified tenses, as well as what could be termed an accent. The podcast host has an excellent book on Black English, and I will talk about it in a future missive.
Lexicon Valley is a great stress-free, relaxing, zero politics podcast for unwinding before bed. It's available on various platforms.
Album recommendation: The Swan
This is one of my favorite classical albums ever. I specially like the sound of the cello for its emotional depth and wide range. I'm almost positive that I lack the eternal patience it must take to develop real skill on this instrument, but if I were going to learn one string instrument, this would be it. “The Swan” includes works by Fauré, Max Bruch, and Saint-Saëns. The entire album is smooth and mellow. I often put it in my mix when I am doing yoga or other morning “wake the fuck up, body,” practices. If I wanted to blast myself into wakefulness, I would stick with Opeth, but I would rather ease into the day.
GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE, 2020.
I could go on at length about how it's been a challenging year for many of us, pandemic, political chaos, uncertainty, lack of human contact, but you've heard this all before, and you are living it like all of us. Here is wishing for a better New Year, sweet, sweet vaccinations (I was very disappointed to find out that they go in your arm and not your butt cheeks, because I imagined getting a Pfizer in the left and a Moderna in the right), hugging friends again properly, dinner parties, concerts, and all the good things currently postponed.
Love this tiny letter? Hate it? Drop me a line either way. And tell all your friends to sign up so I can grow my audience until I can sell out!