⬛🕯️

The war began eight years prior, more or less.

But something changed around 5 a.m. EET, Feb 24, 2022 (10 p.m. EST, Feb 23).

"Whoever tries to hinder us ... should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to consequences that you have never faced in your history."

Minutes after Putin's speech, missiles came for sites around Kyiv, & artillery for Kharkiv. Soldiers began marching from Belgorod.

We entered a test.

Did we understand its cost?

Two years on, we do not.

Because I vented earlier this week about another videochat that took some exhausting topical directions, I think it's only right and proper to celebrate a Very Good Chat Indeed with someone else today.

Then again, today's chat was with a CoSonaut, so where's the surprise there?

Most of us are pretty good eggs--cracked or not. 😉

(Cheers, @WordsmithFL!)

(Cool new science article eventually, I hope. I do so miss that part of my beat!)

Okay, folks. I was *going* to write about cool new science today, but instead we have to talk about media layoffs.

There are many articles sounding the alarm about all the lost jobs. I go one further than some, though, by highlighting that the quality of our news is *already* gutted. Today, I talk about some of the social directions (product reviews! AI content! gutted democracy!) we can expect until we pass policy that recenters news media as a vital public enterprise.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/downsized-news-media-ai-futures-and-democratic-losses/

🤣 Sometimes it takes a while for a word's meaning to click. I've heard "Godos" used for years to describe conservative politicians here, & assumed it referenced a specific politician, the way Uribe has uribistas. But no!

It means "Goths" in the ancient sense: the Germanic people at the end of the Roman Empire. We don't use it that way in English though, so how can I *not* now imagine all our conservatives in black platforms & eyeliner, contemplating the folly of existence to melancholy tunes? 🙃

Happiness is bar equipment all to myself after a warmup 3k. :)

Good morning, starshines. 😊

I'm about to go see if the world says hello.

(If it starts screaming TURN BACK instead, I'll let you know!)

Another brilliant day on CoSo: great book recs, excellent eagle eyes on a range of news events, solid conversations on effective advocacy, communal excitement over a moon landing, and fantastic creative shares.

Heck, one of you even sent me your own scholarly work, which I'm keen to read after tomorrow's run.

World's a right bloody mess!

But we have *such* a range of views, talents, and people making one heck of a difference where they can.

And don't you go forgetting it. 💛 Night, 'Nauts.

I feel very unaccomplished today, but I know that's just a state of mind. A lot got done.

And... once the marching band finishes, it's back to a novella for me. Tough to finish this one, though, because I first drafted it before world-grief really took hold. All the things I was pouring into it then feel very small right now.

I don't usually do full rewrites, but this might be an exception. It feels bizarrely "twee" for a post-coronal mass ejection murder mystery with ghosts.

#AmWriting #Soon

Time to move the old meat sack.

Later, 'gators.

Also, @Merlin, if you don't follow Erik Hoel, I do think you'd enjoy his writing, based especially on our last conversation.

I had a piece of his linked in the above newsletter, but instead of making you go fishing for it in my dreck, here's Hoel talking about how consciousness studies have skewed overall neuroscience research, for better and for worse. (If you haven't read it yet already, mind you; I wouldn't be surprised if you already know of and follow him!)

https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/neuroscience-is-pre-paradigmatic

This piece was tough to write, in part because it addresses an issue in psychiatry for one of its core examples—and I take very seriously not wanting to disrupt other people’s paths to wellness.

Still, many scientific fields have met with serious setbacks as of late, which can be difficult to translate to critical policy changes. That disconnect can create a crisis of expertise--at least, if we forget what “knowledge” really is, and how to practise it better every day.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-end-of-expertise-the-beginning

Ah. I thought I was feeling sad and melancholy this morning.

I'm not.

It's just world-grief again.

If that sounds like you today, too, take good care of your heart, and do something nice for the rest of your body, too.

Anyway, bedtime now, but here's a laugh from reddit that made me feel a bit better.

It's a perfect reminder that all learning can be weaponized to defend against real personal growth, if you want it to be. 🙃

The problem in that tricity was its two tiers of comfortable ignorance: your garden variety white folk, most working lower class jobs or maybe even unhoused, who found comfort in hard circumstances by holding that they were at least better than non-white persons, and believed themselves the greater social victims.

Then there was the academic equivalent: folks of means who loved nothing more than tacitly defending hateful white conduct via "intellectual" hypotheticals about marginalized people.

I was feeling grouchy after not quite keeping my cool during a chat today.

Essentially, a Canadian with whom I've discussed far right movements *for years* asked me: "You seem interested in the topic of white nationalism: can you tell me what that is and how it differs from Black nationalism?"

It's just frustrating to be asked questions that aren't trolling, but which still come from comfortable ignorance and have to be unpacked on multiple levels.

Brings back "fun" memories of life in KW. 🙃