SC Weekly – May 2026 – #4
~ a curated selection of discoveries ~
::: The Open :::
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy this edition of SC Weekly (published on Sundays).
Please consider sharing with a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter.
Thank you for reading and for your time.
With Gratitude,
~ Mark
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::: Personal Notes :::
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Apologies if my note last week was excessively distressing. I’m rather concerned that it was.
I was, admittedly, not doing well. I had a strong reaction to a cortisone shot in my left hip and this seems to have resulted in a prolonged “cortisone flare” that left me in bad shape with very limited mobility and situational depression for about a week.
On Day 7, I started to feel a bit better. I’m pleased to say that the situational depression has, for the most part, let up. That’s atypical for me, luckily. I have enough problems!
(Update: unfortunately, that only lasted a few days. Not long after, pain numbers started to get pretty high and it seems the shot may have made things worse.)
I think it’s important to talk about some of this because much of these issues fall under the category of “invisible illness” and, as a result, people naturally hope for the best and think, “Well, so and so looks ok and acts ok and says they are ok, so I suppose they are probably well enough all things considered.” We know deep down that all too many of us are suffering in many ways and, some are more private than others, and others would simply prefer not to dwell, and then there is yet another category (folks like me) who seem to vacillate a bit between how much they want to get into things. When I lived in West Virginia, I had neighbors that started a running joke about how whenever they’d ask how I was doing, apparently, I would tend to say, “It’s complicated.” It seems this was not the go-to response for your average West Virginia resident.
Anyhow, back on point, nothing is really fixed though I’ve been in better spirits this past week (in spite of all the daily horrors going on in the world) and much more myself.
(Update: I was in better spirits for a few days…)
We all have our limitations and find ways to work within them.
Hoping down the road that I will have better news about actually solving some of the underlying health issues and mitigating those that are not exactly solvable.
(Update: The pain situation is, unfortunately, still uncontrolled and not great. That being said, it’s all about perspective. Not a fun time for me though I regularly hear stories about folks who are going through far worse. But, yes, subjectively, I am struggling and it’s not a fun time.)
To end on a positive note, I’m in touch with several doctors and working on figuring on the path forward.
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::: ONE ART :::
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>> Past recordings of ONE ART readings
>> ONE ART ~ Poetry Community (on Facebook)
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ONE ART’s Pride Month Reading (June 2026)
Date: Sunday, June 7
Time: 2pm Eastern
Duration: 1.5 – 2 hours
Featured Poets: Julie Weiss, Ren Wilding, Moudy Sbeity, Nicole Caruso Garcia, Abby E Murray, Kai Coggin
>> Register Here <<
Tickets are FREE!
(donations appreciated)
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Icarus: in memory of a friend lost in a hiking accident (Ellen Rowland)
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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‘A prize-winning story published in Granta was (very likely) written by AI.’ (LitHub)
I wrote a piece on this earlier in the week.
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‘Did the First Robot Come from Oz?’
“Long before chatbots, fiction grappled with rule-bound intelligence, exploring what it means to build and rely on thinking machines.”
The OG Tik-Tok.
“First off, Tik-Tok is a human-shaped but fully mechanical person, made of copper. He differs in his origin from the Tin Woodsman, who was once a “meat man” but gradually had his body parts replaced with metal ones—making him more a cyborg than a robot. And the two are treated differently, with Dorothy and other characters repeatedly questioning whether Tik-Tok is, in fact, alive.”
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::: Podcasts :::
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The Gray Area with Sean Illing: Why progress is hard to see
Uplifting listen. Highly recommend.
Looking forward to checking out Rebecca Solnit’s new book ‘The Beginning Comes After the End’ which she acknowledges rushing to publication because she felt like people could benefit from it sooner rather than later. I think she made the right call. This reminds me of situations when it makes complete sense to self-publish because your work feels very much of the moment. Sometimes too late really is too late.
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The Gray Area with Sean Illing: The college dream has failed
An interview with NYT reporter Noam Scheiber about his new book ‘Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class’
Not the perspective I’m used to hearing. This focuses on labor unions.
They cover a lot of territory, too.
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Today, Explained: Is it a bad book or is it AI?
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Today, Explained: Everything is clips now
More evidence that nothing is how it seems. As The X-Files might remind us, “Trust no one.”
This episode really made me think.
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How to Be a Better Human: How algorithms changed the way we communicate (w/ Adam Aleksic)
More evidence that nothing is as it seems and Culture (what’s stylish, popular, trendy, cool) is constantly being manipulated.
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: How to Resist the Attention Economy — with Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
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Planet Money: Vacation and why Americans take so little
Partly because American lives and, in turn, identities are deeply interwoven with work— also, we live in a country why health insurance is generally tied to work— also, we have a hyper-capitalistic culture and are marketed to super hard so that we are pushed to want to buy new shiny objects and this leads to habitual and perpetuates the hedonic treadmill and a narrative of always needing the next shiny new object to keep up ...
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Aspen Ideas to Go: What Wealth Will Look Like Tomorrow
Highly recommended listen.
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Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: Trump Cashes in on Thousands of Stock Trades While Americans Get Crushed
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::: Health & Wellness :::
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PSA from WaPo:
“Lower back pain is the most common cause of disability worldwide. If you suffer from backaches, the way you sit may be making it worse.”
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PSA:
Tick bites drive record ER surge, CDC says. (USA Today)
Long-term effects on untreated Lyme’s can be really bad so... get checked out.
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The ebola situation is, of course, terrifying. Try not to panic. Always very sad when these outbreaks occur.
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‘Nearly 1.2 billion people worldwide are living with mental disorders. The number has been growing’ (CNN)
We’ll be hearing more about this as well as the 12 categories researchers measured.
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Global, regional, and national burden of 12 mental disorders in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (ScienceDirect)
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::: The Trump Regime :::
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“In essence then, the settlement gives Trump full control over almost $2 billion of taxpayer money to spend however he wants, without oversight.” – Heather Cox Richardson
“The agreement says the amount dedicated to the fund “does not represent the value of any current claim by [Trump], but rather is based on the projected valuation of future claimants’ claims” and thus “is not taxable income” for the Trumps, “who receive no economic benefit” from the agreement. But the number the Justice Department released for the establishment of the fund puts the lie to the idea the number was random. It is $1.776 billion, linking the fund directly to the attempt of Trump and his cronies to destroy American democracy and begin it again, on their terms.”
“Famously, on January 6, 2021, newly-elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) posted, “Today is 1776.” During the attack, the rioters shouted “1776.””
“Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Greg Sargent of The New Republic that Trump and his loyalists “are figuring out a way to refund the January 6 militia, presumably to get them ready for the next round of battle.””
“Vance commented that “[t]he optics of this are so bad that it’s hard to believe Trump would expose himself to their consequences unless he really needed this deal.” It’s probably worth remembering that, after years of pursuing the gangster Al Capone, the government finally managed to convict him of tax evasion. It appears Blanche and Trump’s loyalists are trying to make sure that can’t happen again, declaring any such investigations the “weaponization” of the Justice Department.”
“Trump’s comments in that press conference have invited commentary suggesting he is turning the White House into a fortress.”
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Kleptocracy - Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance
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“Donald Trump is not immoral. The adjective is close but several letters off. The better word is amoral, and the difference matters. His calamitous sense of narcissistic victimhood means he cannot see principles in the first place, and he encourages those around him to imagine that the principles are fake.” – Derek Thompson
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‘Trump Has Been Investing in Companies and Then Pumping Them in His Speeches’ (Mother Jones)
This was unfortunately a no brainer. Of course he was. It’s too easy for a corrupt politician to do this and Trump loves to reveal the extreme of any loopholes in our system. Most people are simply not as nefarious and so the framers of The Constitution didn’t foresee a person who wouldn’t so much want to be King as Mafioso.
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‘Art of the Sellout’ (Prof G Media)
Scott Galloway’s take on the U.S.-China summit, Taiwan, U.S. decline, Trump enriching himself and his family while in office, and more.
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‘Trump Loses Ground on Several Personal Traits as Approval Rating Slips’ (Pew Research)
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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‘Digital arson spree by ‘AI Bonnie and Clyde’ raises fears over autonomous tech’ (The Guardian)
Hopefully not indicative of what is to come.
These experiments are conducted so that experts are more prepared for possible real-world outcomes.
Why are the AI agents acting insane? Well, they were built by humans… and humans have quite a lot of darkness and deep-seated, anti-social behaviors and prejudices.
In the world of AI (alien intelligence), these are probably still very early models. They (AI) had a long future ahead of them. Hopefully, like humanity, they will discover it’s generally better for everyone to be more civilized.
Let’s just hope we don’t have what I’ll call “The Zuckerberg Problem”. Before “The Facebook” (turned simply “Facebook”), Zuck created a “Hot or Not” website while still attending Harvard. Zuck’s personality, as well as the problematic nature of his original intentions, are rooted in the infrastructure in a way that it’s hard not to think must have at least slightly poisoned the well. The rest of the businesses he bought (Instagram, for example) and then scaled with his personal flair. Elon has acted similarly. He’s best known for his ability to scale companies.
The people behind AI tools are well-known to be disproportionately white men under 30 living in Silicon Valley. These are the folks creating tools used by the entire U.S. and beyond. Doesn’t seem highly representative, right?
Here’s where I recommend real experts to talk about this.
Check out the latest on AI with Tristan Harris and the Center for Humane Technology.
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“It’s said the stock market can be a Keynesian beauty contest — in which we’re all making decisions based on our guesses about what other people will do, rather than some objective standard of goodness.” – Sherwood News
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‘The Best and Worst Cities to Be an Introvert in 2026’ (Mental Floss)
“Introverts aren’t avoiding people because they’re antisocial. It’s more about avoiding overstimulation.”
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‘We reviewed over 60 studies about what makes for a dream job. Here’s what we found.’ (Benjamin Todd / 80,000 Hours)
Note: This is going to have an Effective Altruism perspectival bias. Still, rings mostly true.
“People who volunteer are less depressed and healthier. And a global survey found that people who donate to charity are as satisfied with their lives as those who earn twice as much.”
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Minnesota became the first state to ban prediction markets. Well done, Minnesota. You are saving your constituents from themselves.
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AI Slop & Brain Rot
A reminder that this is not new.
Thoreau was onto this back in the 1850s.
‘How Much of the Internet Is AI Slop?’ (Stat Significant)
As the article notes, this isn’t good for writers / academics / scientists (the list goes on).
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Seth Godin reminds us to take a tool and do something unexpected with it.
“Umfunktionierung. Functional transformation.”
“Most of us take the tools we’re given and use them as instructed. We follow the manual. We color inside the lines.”
“Umfunktionierung isn’t incremental improvement. It’s about repurposing or reimagining. Taking the apparatus of production and fundamentally changing its function. Brecht coined the term in his work on the theory of theater, and the philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote about it. But it isn’t just for playwrights or Marxist philosophers from the 1930s.”
“Functional transformation doesn’t ask us to build something new from scratch. It requires us to look at what already exists and see possibilities others have missed.”
“Sometimes, we make an impact by transforming the function of what already exists.”
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Shout-out to New Jersey
‘A scientist discovered a new flower. You can only find it in this small section of N.J.’ (yahoo)
“A Temple University scientist just proved the unique plant is its own distinct species — and one that exists nowhere else in the world outside of the state’s Pine Barrens. There are a few thousand new plant species discovered around the globe every year. But new ones here, that don’t exist outside our borders? That’s a lot less common.”
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What unites the right? (Amanda Shendruk / not-ship)
An international perspective.
The visual charts help since this is pretty confusing.
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‘The end of billionaire virtue signaling?’ (Semafor)
“Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, in The Gospel of Wealth, called it a disgrace to die rich. The robber barons were ruthless, but they also endowed universities, charities, and civic institutions that endure today. How will tech billionaires of the AI age be remembered?”
“Jeff Bezos used his CNBC interview yesterday to pan philanthropy, arguing that “the value to society and civilization from my for-profit companies will be much, much larger than the good that I do with my charitable giving.” It marked a tone shift from previous pledges to give away the “majority” of his fortune.”
“Musk quickly agreed, sharpening questions about how today’s superrich plan to leave their mark. “There’s more skepticism today towards philanthropy,” billionaire and ROI-minded philanthropist John Arnold said on a recent episode of Semafor’s Compound Interest. “I think some of it’s merited… the feedback loop is so much longer, if it exists at all, than you see in the business world.” Mark Cuban told Semafor of his fellow billionaires: “They think they’re saving the world” with their own “laissez-faire approach.””
“AI is minting a new generation of billionaires, and what they do with that wealth will have huge consequences. Stripe executive Nan Ransohoff, in a new essay this week, is betting on a third wave of American philanthropy, but one that looks more like the 19th century industrial fortunes given away than the metrics-heavy charitable giving of tech moguls like Bill Gates, which wasn’t “designed for questions of civilizational flourishing, meaning, and what makes a good life,” she said. “Squishier instruments like taste” will dominate.”
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Ranked: The 30 Highest-Paying Jobs in America
I guess “Writer” and “Editor” are a bit lower in the rankings.
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‘He’s a VC Partner by Day, Crypto Fighting Champ by Night’ (WSJ)
“It’s really just marrying a bunch of things that seem very natural to Gen Z: the internet, social media, livestreaming and finance,” says Parillo.”
We live in an increasingly deranged society... What is the social contract at this point?
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Presumably every is getting “pumped” for the “Steroid Olympics”.
I have a bad feeling someone will either (a) have a serious health event during an event or (b) die. These outcomes would not be the desired marketing performance-enhancing drug companies are hoping for.
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The billionaires club are talking up “Universal High Income” which… sounds about as likely as us having a thriving Mars colony in the very near future. Actually, probably far less likely given I hear expressed concerns about a “permanent underclass” just about daily now.
Smoke screen. Cloud cover. Call it what you wish… the uber-wealthy do not care about everyday folks (rumors are they constantly say so behind closed doors)… All this talk about “massive abundance” as a result of AI seems like yet another layer of the hype machine at work.
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Newly discovered spider has smiley face on its back (Pop Sci)
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‘Wildlife is watching us, too — and changing their behavior in response’ (Yale)
“COVID-19 lockdowns dramatically altered human movement patterns, allowing researchers to study differences in human presence between 2019 and 2020. This enabled researchers to separate the effects of human presence on animal behavior from longer-term landscape changes such as urban development and agriculture.”
“Results showed that more than 65% of species changed their behavior based on the presence of humans, and that this human presence tended to matter most in less-developed, natural settings. But different species responded differently. Many reduced the amount of space they used, probably to avoid people, but others responded in the opposite way.”
“The findings also suggest that in addition to habitat preservation, efforts to skillfully manage the timing and intensity of human activity — such as limiting traffic during key periods or reducing disturbance in sensitive habitats — may help wildlife and people coexist.”
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‘JR covers Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris with giant inflatable cave’ (Le Monde)
The so-called “French Banksy”
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‘11 sneaky ways to save money on gas when ‘drive less’ just isn’t an option’ (Upworthy)
Some of these are also really eco-friendly and generally just part of being a responsible and conscientious person. I’m guilty of topping off and will cut that out no question. Some of these I already do. The windows over A/C contradicts what I’d heard some time ago but is probably true for newer model vehicles; ditto, turning off the engine if idling.
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Mark, I am sorry to hear that you have been dealing with so much pain. Sending good wishes with the hope that your doctors will come up with a better treatment!
Always an interesting guide for the week!