Making Sense of the Week That Was #31 — “The Whirlwind and Old Becomes New Again”, August 20th, 2021
Grey Swan Guild — News Wrap Edition: Aug 20, 2021 #31 of Vol. 1
Theme: Reap the Whirlwind Lead Editor: Ben Thurman
Observing the news the last two weeks, stories from past decades are returning to haunt or delight us. A hasty withdraw from Afghanistan has echoes of exits from Vietnam (1975 U.S. evacuation) and Afghanistan (1842 British disaster) in earlier times; mask debates and geometric COVID case increases are on repeat in the tape deck, like The Wall playing in an old Jeep Cherokee ( and not the new electric one). On the lighter side, streaming services have old favourites from the 70’s playing. Johnny Fever with Baily and Jennifer can take our minds off of the world’s woes any day of the week.
What’s old is new — good and bad. The Talking Heads said it well when they said, “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around, this ain’t no Mudd Club or C.B.G.B., I ain’t got time for that now…” It’s time to wrap.
This week is #31 of a compendium of stories and headlines we’re tracking in the Grey Swan Guild’s Global League of Sensemakers’ Newsroom.
Imagine a newsroom that went deeper, had little bias (and none unconscious) and didn’t have to get their points across as 40-second sound bytes or linkbait headlines, That’s us.
Here is The Great, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, the Uncertain and a Tapestry of what we observed this week. What was on our collective minds these last 168 hours? Afghanistan, wildfires, booster shots, Delta variants, the heat and return to school for many challenged our thoughts and feelings. Warning due to the reboots, there are spoilers.
This isn’t a spoiler though — Check the Grey Swan Calendar ← here — there are new events each month.
We are on summer hours but the next Atelier is coming soon — Sept 16 —” On Earth and Beyond to Space. Our quest to understand, discover and get ahead of our fragile and far frontiers both near are far, the mysteries that abound.” Join by clicking the link.
And in the “sooner than later” column... Why not join us on Sunday, August 22nd at 8am (PST) | 11am (EST) | 4pm BST on Clubhouse to explore this wrap, have your say and engage with your favourite Grey Swan Guild Wrap Editors including Sean Moffitt, Agustín Borrazás, Rob Tyrie, Ben Thurman, Louise Mowbray, and Antonia Nicols amd a growing caste of columnist with and eye, ear and voice for the news.
Join Our Clubhouse #31 to do the whirlwind in real-time — https://www.clubhouse.com/join/grey-swan-guild/QLrkGYpD/mW1D8a2n
The Great 😇
1.Remember when special effects wizards painted a large man green and we marvelled? Return to an American age when sitcoms were not politically correct — see Soap, Dukes of Hazzard or Archie Bunker + Jeffersons. We said goodnight to John Boy each week, and Nick was hauling it in on the Persephone. Andie Griffith and The King of Kensington kept small towns safe. There were Happy Days, and if you were in a jam you could count on Joe Rockford or Thomas Magnum. Problems were solved in half an hour, and everyone laughed their heads off watching some goofy doctors try to normalize life during wartime, or we shed an empathic tear when Trapper left for hearth and home and Henry died unexpectedly. A good dose of nostalgia is just what the world needs when so many other parts of life are turned upside down, and maybe a breather from seriousness is just what the fake army doctor ordered. More re-boots anyone? #OkBoomer 😜
2. How do Athletes Unwind — Apparently Legos and Hot Tubs. Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm set a new world record in the 400-meter hurdles. Does he practice meditation and sleep in an isolation chamber to recover? Nope. Karsten builds Legos and sits in hot tubs. We doubt he’s travelled back in time to see John Cusack and say anything but his methods seem to be working — as judged by the medals.
“When you train a lot, it’s very important to get the rest, but it’s also quite boring when you watch all the movies on Netflix and all those things, so it’s really nice to have something else to do which is chill, but that doesn’t take all your energy,” he said.
Build on Karsten, just don’t use the instructions too much.
3. We can be heroes. Well, what’s old, can be fixed. Who says there is no power in civics class? The witch trial were are horrible mass psychosis event that crushed women of the time for, as the students are showing, no good reason at all. More than three centuries after a Massachusetts woman was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she’s finally on the verge of being exonerated — thanks to a curious eighth-grade civics class. Let’s hope we can turn over other wrongs more quickly than in 300 years!
4. Rah Rah Rasputin. Lover of the Russian Theme. It’s back and it’s as dancey as ever. The Boney M 80s song ‘Rasputin’ — engineered to perfection by Offenbach — is back. Thank you TikTok, now every <18 and >45 is dancing to this catchy tune. Disco doesn’t die and we are sure is will be skated to on the Buffalo Roller Canal late this summer.
Propelled by a simple dance challenge that involves people flexing their muscles along with the lyrics “he was big and strong,” the song now appears in all kinds of videos on TikTok, a sign that it has (at least temporarily) embedded itself within the app’s culture.
Will there be a class of popularity if your one hit wonder is in the top ten in 3 separate decades? This may end up being the Hallelujah Award, a Lennie.
5. You got Milk… Remember when milk started getting out of style… Well, cowless milk and cheese are entering our lives. The mix-ins will be fab… Not just chocolate milk but licorice milk too! Milk, egg and other animal products can now be brewed in the lab using familiar fermentation processes, requiring regulators to reconsider what truly makes something “milk” or “cheese”. We do wonder what the cows will do if this wave continues. Unemployed bovines have rarely been included in economic models of the last 100 years.
The Good 😀
1.Ding ding ding. What if you took Atari Games like Centipede and Break Out and married them to a Virtual Casino that works on your smartphone. Well, we guess it’s going to make a lot of money before it’s regulated and will be popular with the over 45 Boomers no doubt. Atari has revealed that it will unveil an Ethereum blockchain online casino designed around Atari-themed games. Cryptocurrencies have never been as popular and highly sought after as they are right now and Atari has recognized it for sure.
2. Power Rangers- Unite! Or whatever they used to chant. New possible and collectible figures have been re-released this summer. The new movie series can’t be far behind. We would love to see a Power Ranger cross over to Marvel or even better Star Trek…. Quite a funny morphing jam wouldn’t you say Spoke? Fascinating indeed.
3. Flip Flop and fly. The modern old flip phones. No one 25 years ago conceived a bendable single screen. A long way from the original Blackberry email pager. We guess those will be due back anytime soon now. Alphanumeric pagers anyone. (Carbon fiber of course). Samsun is in and Nokie is back too. https://p.dw.com/p/3ytJh
4. There was one international space station for a while after Skylab fell to earth. Now there are two. The Chinese Manned Space Agency began the Tiangong Space Station voyage in April and will keep expanding the new exploration of the harsh environment of outer space. Currently able to host 3 astronauts to the ISS’ 16 the ship will be expanded.
“Further development of spacecraft rendezvous technology; Breakthrough in key technologies such as permanent human operations in orbit, long-term autonomous spaceflight of the space station, regenerative life support technology, and autonomous cargo and fuel supply technology; Test of next-generation orbit transportation vehicles; Scientific and practical applications at large-scale in orbit; Development of technology that can aid future deep space exploration.”
The space race lives on and there are more players in the game this time. Let’s hope ground control stays in touch with Mr. Tom.
The Bad 😬
1. Is Afghanistan the new Vietnam for the USA? The parallels are interesting and yet different. Rockets, Red Glare and Evacuations in rapid now plane massive rescue and retreat.
2. Fascinating look at the Honus Wagner 1910 Baseball Cards sold once again for a record-breaking $6.6M. Why is it so valuable? Partly based on scarcity, partly a revived interest in collectibles and owning them (NFTS may be part of this trend) and partly based on folklore. On the basis of it, why is this 111-year-old card so much more valuable than any other flat piece of cardboard — it’s because we say it is. Take a journey into the world of collectables and some of the historical developments and shadiness that have followed the cult industry.
3. That was too fast the old country-wide lockdown is the new lockdown. NZ Locks own hard again, and the most popular of Prime Ministers closes country on the discovery of community spread of one case of the delta COVID 19 variant. What is unusual given the progressive government is the slow vaccination rollout there with 24% of the eligible population double-vaxed. People are queued up for jab in a lagged response. Maybe they will be the first country to plan a triple shot protocol and then roll into a regular booster protocol for at-risk groups that many countries have with flu shots.
The Ugly 🤢
1 1839-1842 British in Afghanistan. Going back even further than American incursions in Afghan, the British invaded too and evacuated too. A history echoing today. Note, the British went in again after. That’s the old What is new is the massive air evacuation US history that was clearly unexpected. Awful and sure to be a set of books a commission and a movie series. →>> Rushed Evacuation in Kabul Highlights Disconnect in Washington
2. It is not our headline, it belongs to the Independent and it is what it is — “Trump complains ‘horrible muggers and dictators’ are allowed on Twitter and he isn’t” — Process that. Remember what happened. Surreal.
3. Ningbo. The partial closure of one of China’s biggest cargo ports due to coronavirus has raised fresh concerns about the impact on global trade. Services were shut on Wednesday at a terminal at Ningbo-Zhoushan port after a worker was infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19. This is one of the largest ports in the world. It’s an ever-given mess again. These slowdowns cause dealing and increased costs, increase demand, decreased supply and increase prices and if we are not careful to wait… inflation. Let us read that back to all — one case, 6-week delay in shipping for the third-largest port in China. Ugh.
The Grey Zone of Uncertainty 🦢
1. Long cool woman in a short dress. The dress is back again!? Well kinda. This one is short, skorty and stretchy and designed for work. Perfect match for Canada’s own tough-skins meet leggings — Sheertex
2. Muddy Waters. Zoom 2.0 Facebook is offering up a new VR Office Experience on its multi-billion foray into 3D immersive environments call Horizon. Clever. We took it for a spin. Apparently, Zuck has not taken a flight in Fortnite — Epic is ahead in “metaversal thinking” (new word), however Facebook, like epic can spend rocket money on this novel space set to take us all Ready Player One without the stacked container park, we hope.
3. Found a peanut. Recasting Jimmy Carter’s legacy. He has been cast as a better “former president” vs. “president. How much of that is true?
4.I saw her standing there. We are not any older but for some, we may seem smaller or taller. This is the new first impression with a twist when we meet face to face after being on zoom together for so long. People hired during the pandemic finally got a chance to see what their colleagues look like in real life; ‘there’s this weird moment when you lay eyes on someone who you know but you don’t know. In some cases people will exclaim, wow, I didn't think you were so _____ fill in the blank. The article focused on the “Taller” phenomena. The psychology may just be if you felt the person was taller or small based on your belief that they are a leader or not. If you imagine they are a leader, you imagine them taller, if a follower, smaller. The real world slaps a check on those beliefs. So it may be a “tell” if someone says to you they thought you’d be taller… they probably think you are a leader. The opposite, of course, is true too.
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We continue to mine uncertainty and would love your help in our Weathervane survey #4 — Here to Stay or Going Away.
Click here and combine our experiences here: https://bit.ly/gsgweathervane4
The Tapestry 🎨 Weaving the News
Chart of the Week — Vax-Nations
Nigeria has a population of over 211M people and a vaccination rate of under 2%. With this unevenness of coverage in the world, there likely will be more variants. This leaves the world in known unknown territory. The possibility of waves of the disease across the world is expected. It will take a decade to determine if quality of life and life expectancy were each significantly impacted by COVID 19 and government restrictions. The costs are already in the trillions. #pandemicthinking
The invention of the the Week —
“I am sorry Mr. Musk, I am too small and weak to do that”.
Lexicon — The Term of the Week — Situationship:
Situationship. A relationship that is formed in response to lockdowns, and ends on returning freedoms. A situational relationship. Context, we are reminded, is everything. We suspect that both relationships and friendships can be situational. Folk maybe want to re-listen to Randy Newman’s, You’ve Got A Friend In Me before you dump them just past lockdown. We have learned these things come in waves.
Streaming Show of the Week: Manifest
Yeah. not for the right reasons
RIP of the Weekend
Chuck Close is Dead. His art was unique, his character not. His massive grid style and sexual misconduct will not be forgotten.
Book of the Week —On Androids and Humanity
Hopefully, Elon has this exploration of humanity programmed in.
Picture of the Week:
In scenes reminiscent of the U.S. exits from Vietnam, and Iran, Afghanis crowd a C17 cargo plane leaving the country. People are seen falling from the plane after take-off — illustrating the fear the Taliban brings with it and the terror of opposing a regime. The horrible image of the man falling from the wheel well of the giant plane is reminiscent of the falling man of the World Trade Center 20 years ago. The corollary of desperate action and hopeless realization in two opposing countries, make us hurt in concert for all the senseless deaths.
Video of the Week:
Theme — I Can Feel It Coming Back Again
That’s the Wrap! Your thoughts?
Why not join us on Sunday, Aug 22nd, 2021 at 8:00am (PST) | 11am (EST) | 4pm (BST) on Clubhouse led by Howard A Fields and Agustín Borrazás to engage with your favourite Grey Swan Guild Wrap Editors, including Sean Moffitt, Rob Tyrie, Ben Thurman, Louise Mowbray and Antonia Nicols. let’s talk Edition #31.
Make Submissions to The Wrap any time on The Grey Swan Guild’s LinkedIn Page, with the hashtag #TheWrap. Be pithy, be wry, be relaxed and make some sense of the news with us. It’s a place we hang out during the week too. Join the conversation there and share your ideas, hopes and worries with us. We are in this together for a reason.
