π²ππππππ π². πΌπππ
@charlescmann.bsky.social
Author of "1491, "1493," and, most recently, "The Wizard and the Prophet." New book coming out in Spring 2027 from Knopf.
The background image is real old by now, but I like the pig. The avatar photo is only a few years old, though, so that's something.
The background image is real old by now, but I like the pig. The avatar photo is only a few years old, though, so that's something.
Pinned
How the System Works
A series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life β and what happens if we donβt maintain them
www.thenewatlantis.com
My thanks to the New Atlantis, letting me do this series on "How the System Works," and for removing the paywall today. It's maddening how little attention our society--and our political leaders, who take cues from us--pay to the systems that have made things better for so many billions.
A real memorial to Jimmy Carter, who died a year ago. Last year, the world had just 10 reported cases of guinea worm--a terrible disease whose eradication was a major focus of the Carter Center. It may become, after smallpox, the second human disease that was totally eliminated.
Guinea Worm Disease Reaches All-Time Low: Only 10 Human Cases Reported in 2025
Only 10 human cases of Guinea worm were reported worldwide in 2025, the lowest number ever recorded, bringing the ancient disease closer than ever to eradication.
www.cartercenter.org
February 10, 2026 at 2:56 PM
A real memorial to Jimmy Carter, who died a year ago. Last year, the world had just 10 reported cases of guinea worm--a terrible disease whose eradication was a major focus of the Carter Center. It may become, after smallpox, the second human disease that was totally eliminated.
Why yes, vacuum is an excellent insulator--look at your thermos. Chips "cooled" by vacuum will get fried.
Wonder whether Musk, who supposedly studied physics, actually doesn't know this or the FT reporter's brain shorted after hearing Musk's absurd 3-yr prediction and he ended up garbling the idea.
Wonder whether Musk, who supposedly studied physics, actually doesn't know this or the FT reporter's brain shorted after hearing Musk's absurd 3-yr prediction and he ended up garbling the idea.
This would have been a good point for someone to have asked, is that really how things work? Or is vacuum in fact an excellent insulator? www.ft.com/content/a5cf...
February 10, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Why yes, vacuum is an excellent insulator--look at your thermos. Chips "cooled" by vacuum will get fried.
Wonder whether Musk, who supposedly studied physics, actually doesn't know this or the FT reporter's brain shorted after hearing Musk's absurd 3-yr prediction and he ended up garbling the idea.
Wonder whether Musk, who supposedly studied physics, actually doesn't know this or the FT reporter's brain shorted after hearing Musk's absurd 3-yr prediction and he ended up garbling the idea.
Reposted by π²ππππππ π². πΌπππ
I made a book! Guardians of Life: Indigenous Science, Indigenous Wisdom, and Restoring the Planet, has dropped! Along with my a decade of my photographs, it was the collaborative effort of over two dozen Indigenous people from around the world! www.Guardians-of-Life.org
February 9, 2026 at 11:34 PM
I made a book! Guardians of Life: Indigenous Science, Indigenous Wisdom, and Restoring the Planet, has dropped! Along with my a decade of my photographs, it was the collaborative effort of over two dozen Indigenous people from around the world! www.Guardians-of-Life.org
All of that is true--as is the fact that for decades seniors have resisted doing that.
February 10, 2026 at 12:12 AM
All of that is true--as is the fact that for decades seniors have resisted doing that.
Great for you! But a lot of seniors see being forced to rely on cabs--other people driving them--as a violation of their independence and thus resist surrendering their keys and relying on cabs. AVs would maintain their independence.
February 9, 2026 at 11:30 PM
Great for you! But a lot of seniors see being forced to rely on cabs--other people driving them--as a violation of their independence and thus resist surrendering their keys and relying on cabs. AVs would maintain their independence.
A lot of seniors have trouble with the apps, worry about the incremental cost, and/or live outside of major cities where cabs are plentiful.
February 9, 2026 at 11:23 PM
A lot of seniors have trouble with the apps, worry about the incremental cost, and/or live outside of major cities where cabs are plentiful.
Hard to read about things like this awful crash without wishing autonomous vehicles were here to provide transportation for seniors who seniors who are no longer safe behind the wheel but don't want to feel imprisoned in their houses.
ktla.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:11 PM
Hard to read about things like this awful crash without wishing autonomous vehicles were here to provide transportation for seniors who seniors who are no longer safe behind the wheel but don't want to feel imprisoned in their houses.
Reposted by π²ππππππ π². πΌπππ
Even non-top thinkers like me find it useful for just that purpose.
February 5, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Even non-top thinkers like me find it useful for just that purpose.
Nothing wrong with sophomoric bullshitting! I do it all the time! But I also know it's just dopey fun.
What amazes me is that these people apparently thought Epstein was really special for it.
What amazes me is that these people apparently thought Epstein was really special for it.
February 5, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Nothing wrong with sophomoric bullshitting! I do it all the time! But I also know it's just dopey fun.
What amazes me is that these people apparently thought Epstein was really special for it.
What amazes me is that these people apparently thought Epstein was really special for it.
I remember being startled to learn that Massachusetts was the first English colony in North America to formally legalize slavery, which it did in December 1641.
February 5, 2026 at 3:29 PM
I remember being startled to learn that Massachusetts was the first English colony in North America to formally legalize slavery, which it did in December 1641.
"Wait'll you hear about this. Our science doesn't understand consciousness very well."
"You're going too fast for me. Please."
"And there are, like, tons of different ways to be smart!"
"Stop it, have mercy! I can't take any more of this!"
"You're going too fast for me. Please."
"And there are, like, tons of different ways to be smart!"
"Stop it, have mercy! I can't take any more of this!"
February 5, 2026 at 3:08 PM
"Wait'll you hear about this. Our science doesn't understand consciousness very well."
"You're going too fast for me. Please."
"And there are, like, tons of different ways to be smart!"
"Stop it, have mercy! I can't take any more of this!"
"You're going too fast for me. Please."
"And there are, like, tons of different ways to be smart!"
"Stop it, have mercy! I can't take any more of this!"
"Did you know... Socrates didn't write his own stuff?"
"OMG, Jeffrey. OMG."
"And... economies are kind of like organisms."
"You're blowing my mind here."
"And... get this: a lot of politicians don't have a sophisticated grasp of economic theory."
"Gonna hafta lie down now, this is killing me."
"OMG, Jeffrey. OMG."
"And... economies are kind of like organisms."
"You're blowing my mind here."
"And... get this: a lot of politicians don't have a sophisticated grasp of economic theory."
"Gonna hafta lie down now, this is killing me."
February 5, 2026 at 3:03 PM
"Did you know... Socrates didn't write his own stuff?"
"OMG, Jeffrey. OMG."
"And... economies are kind of like organisms."
"You're blowing my mind here."
"And... get this: a lot of politicians don't have a sophisticated grasp of economic theory."
"Gonna hafta lie down now, this is killing me."
"OMG, Jeffrey. OMG."
"And... economies are kind of like organisms."
"You're blowing my mind here."
"And... get this: a lot of politicians don't have a sophisticated grasp of economic theory."
"Gonna hafta lie down now, this is killing me."
Hard to read Epstein's banal, name-droppy conversation with Steve Bannon w/o thinking about the implications of the fact that lots of our business, political, and educational elite evidently thought this sort of dorm-roomy "intellectual" stuff was unusually smart. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
February 5, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Hard to read Epstein's banal, name-droppy conversation with Steve Bannon w/o thinking about the implications of the fact that lots of our business, political, and educational elite evidently thought this sort of dorm-roomy "intellectual" stuff was unusually smart. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Reposted by π²ππππππ π². πΌπππ
MacKenzie Scott has the chance to do the funniest thing right now.
February 4, 2026 at 2:47 PM
MacKenzie Scott has the chance to do the funniest thing right now.
Also, how weird is it that Harry Reasoner doesn't seem to have done ANY homework? Davis began playing with white musicians as early as 1949 (ignoring, famously, objections from purists) and continuously boosted the careers of people like Bill Evans and Dave Holland.
February 4, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Also, how weird is it that Harry Reasoner doesn't seem to have done ANY homework? Davis began playing with white musicians as early as 1949 (ignoring, famously, objections from purists) and continuously boosted the careers of people like Bill Evans and Dave Holland.
Such an amazing, devastating book. And that he finished it and then almost immediately killed himself--it hangs over every word.
February 4, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Such an amazing, devastating book. And that he finished it and then almost immediately killed himself--it hangs over every word.
Time capsule: Nobody--well, almost nobody--would ask the questions to a leading African-American artist that 60 Minutes asked Miles Davis in 1989. The look in his eyes as he hears them... sheesh.
Miles Davis answering dumb questions
YouTube video by thejazzwhisper
www.youtube.com
February 4, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Time capsule: Nobody--well, almost nobody--would ask the questions to a leading African-American artist that 60 Minutes asked Miles Davis in 1989. The look in his eyes as he hears them... sheesh.
Someone who knows Greek corrected me. Helen's epithet in the Iliad is βwhite-armed HelenββλΡΟ
ΞΊΟΞ»Ξ΅Ξ½ΞΏΟ αΌΞ»ΞΞ½Ξ· (I copy this from my pal), meant to suggest that she is aristocratic and does no labor, not necessarily that her arms are white, though it does have a root in the word for "gleaming."
February 3, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Someone who knows Greek corrected me. Helen's epithet in the Iliad is βwhite-armed HelenββλΡΟ
ΞΊΟΞ»Ξ΅Ξ½ΞΏΟ αΌΞ»ΞΞ½Ξ· (I copy this from my pal), meant to suggest that she is aristocratic and does no labor, not necessarily that her arms are white, though it does have a root in the word for "gleaming."
I've heard that the poem describes Helen as something like "white-haired," which supposedly adverts to the fact that her father was Zeus in the guise of a giant swan. So maybe the mask would've been dark-skinned and white-haired? I don't speak Greek, so can't say this with any confidence.
February 3, 2026 at 4:18 PM
I've heard that the poem describes Helen as something like "white-haired," which supposedly adverts to the fact that her father was Zeus in the guise of a giant swan. So maybe the mask would've been dark-skinned and white-haired? I don't speak Greek, so can't say this with any confidence.
Somehow, I don't think folks like this are arguing for truly traditional classical Greek casting, in which Helen of Troy would be played by a man in a mask. Not to mention that Helen herself was not even fully human--her father was a supernatural swan.
February 3, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Somehow, I don't think folks like this are arguing for truly traditional classical Greek casting, in which Helen of Troy would be played by a man in a mask. Not to mention that Helen herself was not even fully human--her father was a supernatural swan.
What we see up here in Mass. is pairs of cars recklessly racing each other on the freeway. Never saw it before the pandemic. The staties seem to have been leaning on it recently, and I don't see it as often, but it still happens.
February 3, 2026 at 2:34 PM
What we see up here in Mass. is pairs of cars recklessly racing each other on the freeway. Never saw it before the pandemic. The staties seem to have been leaning on it recently, and I don't see it as often, but it still happens.
Possibly--I hope so. But as of Friday South Carolina's outbreak was not yet contained and both Ohio and North Carolina apparently have what are for now small outbreaks caused by people who traveled to South Carolina.
FRIDAY MEASLES UPDATE: DPH Reports 58 New Measles Cases in Upstate, Bringing Outbreak total to 847, Additional School and Public Exposures | South Carolina Department of Public Health
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Jan. 30, 2026COLUMBIA, S.C. β The South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) is reporting 58 new cases of measles in the state since Tuesday, bringing the total number of c...
dph.sc.gov
February 3, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Possibly--I hope so. But as of Friday South Carolina's outbreak was not yet contained and both Ohio and North Carolina apparently have what are for now small outbreaks caused by people who traveled to South Carolina.
2022 just shows how rapid and needless the descent has been.
February 3, 2026 at 1:50 PM
2022 just shows how rapid and needless the descent has been.
There is absolutely nothing about this chart that's good. Indeed, the more you look at it, the worse it gets. www.axios.com/2026/01/22/m...
February 3, 2026 at 1:38 PM
There is absolutely nothing about this chart that's good. Indeed, the more you look at it, the worse it gets. www.axios.com/2026/01/22/m...