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charlescmann.bsky.social
𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗
@charlescmann.bsky.social
6.5K followers 280 following 3.1K posts
Author of "1491, "1493," and, most recently, "The Wizard and the Prophet." Working, inefficiently, on another book.

The background image is pretty old by now, but I like the pig. The avatar photo is only a couple years old, though, so that's something.
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charlescmann.bsky.social
Via a pal in tech, w/ the comment:

www.cartoonshateher.com/p/dont-prove...

"She's correct. Stereotypically 'male' toxic workplaces are more likely to involve obvious physical stuff, and hence are easier for HR to swoop down on than the toxic stuff in stereotypically 'female' workplaces...."
Excerpt from article: I was half-joking, but like…half. As a woman who worked not only in male-dominated tech but at gaming startups, I know a thing or two about “masculine” workplaces, including one place where a middle-aged CEO, quite literally dripping with sweat, aggressively performed expletive-laced karate on a boxing dummy whenever he was angry (which was all the time). Another place involved another CEO with an obvious drinking problem, who threatened to spank me with a wooden paddle for being late, and then revealed he had used the wooden paddle on a male employee last week. What were both of these places missing? Women. Well, except for me and maybe one other woman. And by the way, most of the male employees were miserable too. I have also worked at very feminine workplaces. (I’ve worked at a lot of places, mostly because I got fired a lot for being bad at my jobs.) You could argue that an office culture is too “feminized” if the dynamic is passive-aggressive, gossipy, and cliquey in a way that can’t clearly be proven in a lawsuit. It’s much easier to allege misbehavior when your boss is openly performing non-consensual BDSM than when you have been systematically excluded from informal gatherings—and the latter has happened to me too! I would simply argue that both are the same sides of the toxic workplace coin, but a male-dominated toxic workplace is likely to be more harmful—perhaps even physically harmful, in my male colleague’s case—and therefore it’s no surprise that it’s easier to take legal action against such a place. Helen Andrews pointed out that the modern workplace condemns male vices more than female ones and made the comparison of a workplace resembling a frat house or a Montessori kindergarten (you can sue for a frat house environment, not for a Montessori one). This was an odd juxtaposition, because a frat house workplace would quite obviously be rife with actual legal violations. For better or worse, being annoying is not illegal.
November 10, 2025 at 2:11 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
For Indigenous nations on the Klamath--the Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, Klamath, Shasta, and others--salmon are a huge deal--life itself. The destruction was crushing. But in the long run Cheney's move backfired. It galvanized resistance that led last year to the removal of four giant salmon-killing dams.
Crews remove Copco Dam No. 2, one of the four giant concrete dams on the Klamath that were taken down last year.
November 8, 2025 at 5:25 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Summer 2002 was as hot as summer 2001. With irrigation taking the water, river levels fell. The water got hot, perfect conditions for gill rot, a fungal disease. Salmon, packed into low water, transmitted the disease amongst themselves. It was the worst salmon die off ever recorded--a nightmare.
Salmon die off ,2002
November 8, 2025 at 5:22 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Cheney secretly got Interior Sec'y Dale Norton to appoint a new scientific panel that claimed the fish didn't need the water. Fierce criticisms by the National Marine Fisheries Service team in the area were edited out of the report; the lead biologist resigned in protest.
Excerpt from article: When the lead biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service team critiqued the science academy's report in a draft opinion objecting to the plan, the critique was edited out by superiors and his objections were overruled, he said. The biologist, Michael Kelly, who has since quit the federal agency, said in a whistle-blower claim that it was clear to him that "someone at a higher level" had ordered his agency to endorse the proposal regardless of the consequences to the fish.
November 8, 2025 at 5:13 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Just remembering that Dick Cheney secretly intervened in a dispute over the Klamath River in 2001--and caused the biggest fish die-off in US history, with ~77,000 fully grown adult salmon piled on the banks of the river.
Dead salmon line the banks of the Klamath River on Sept 28, 2002. Source: https://phys.org/news/2015-08-biologists-salmon-klamath-river.html
November 8, 2025 at 5:05 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
This charming if hagiographic article about Cormac McCarthy's insanely huge personal library and the overwhelmed scholars trying to go through it is full of unexpectedly funny evidence of the man's omnivorous curiosity. /v @meganabbott.bsky.social www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...
Excerpt from article: The cataloging was dusty, repetitive, eye-straining work, but it was conducted with good humor and camaraderie, and you never knew what might come out of the next box. One afternoon, after looking through a batch about Cistercian abbeys, violin makers, metaphysics, meta-ontology, the incest taboo and the material foundations of ancient Mesopotamian civilization, I said, “Was there anything he wasn’t interested in? Sewing perhaps?” “Nope,” said Jonathan Elmore, an English professor at Louisiana Tech University. “We’ve cataloged books on needlework and quilting.” Rick noted McCarthy’s keen interest in clothes and fashion, which could, I granted, be described as sewing-related. McCarthy was a longtime subscriber to the fashion and style magazine W, and he had annotated many of his books about menswear. In his copy of The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men’s Style, McCarthy penciled his opinion of slip-on dress shoes: “disgusting.” Further down the same page, next to a sentence praising shiny-buckled monk-strap shoes, he wrote, “yet more horror.” Excerpt from article: The historical figures who interested McCarthy the most, judging by the number of books he owned about them, were Albert Einstein (114 books), Winston Churchill (88) and James Joyce (78). Architecture is the dominant subject in the collection, with 855 books. The human being whom McCarthy most admired, Dennis confirms, was Ludwig Wittgenstein. The team cataloged a staggering 142 books by or about the philosopher, with a high proportion annotated. Excerpt from article: Then we found an intricate drawing he’d made for an engine modification to one of his cars, and another showing how to rifle a gun barrel with hand tools. We found dozens of well-thumbed engine repair manuals and auto mechanic’s tools in the outbuildings, and learned that he could disassemble, reassemble and redesign an engine to increase its horsepower. Then I learned he had an eidetic memory and could remember nearly everything he had read or heard, including the lyrics to thousands of songs. McCarthy was starting to seem like a man whose talents and intelligence were without limits, yet he lived in a hoarder’s shambles and couldn’t stop buying nonstick skillets and fruit bowls.
November 7, 2025 at 5:05 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Economists have boatloads of evidence that rent control damages cities, and hence Mamdani's plans for it are disastrous. But there's also an argument (with some data) that rent control defuses the political resistance to new housing--it defangs NIMBYism (at least somewhat).
Excerpt from article: "Heading into the experiment, the authors hypothesized that having access to a rent-controlled apartment would keep tenants in their existing units longer and therefore make them more resistant to neighborhood change. Instead, they found the opposite: Residents who lived in rent-controlled apartments were 37 percent more likely to support new local-housing construction than those living in noncontrolled units. (Hilbig cautioned to me that “there is some uncertainty, since the confidence intervals are really large,” but that “the effect is definitely sizable.”) This gap was largest in neighborhoods that had experienced the sharpest rental-price increases over the previous decade. The authors concluded that by guaranteeing price stability, rent control eases residents’ fears that new housing will make their current living situation unaffordable. “The takeaway for me is that when people feel protected, when they feel secure, they become much less scared of change,” Hilbig told me."
November 4, 2025 at 9:59 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
In return for the $80B, gov’t gets “participation interest” in Westinghouse, giving it 20% of “any cash distributions in excess of $17.5B made by Westinghouse.” If estimated value of Westinghouse is >$30B by '29, gov’t can force BAM/Cameco to have an IPO for Westinghouse. 2/n
Excerpt from press release: Partnership Structure Under the new strategic partnership, the US Government will be granted a participation interest (Participation Interest), which, once vested, will entitle it to receive 20% of any cash distributions in excess of US$17.5 billion made by Westinghouse after the granting of the Participation Interest. For the Participation Interest to vest, the US Government must make a final investment decision and enter into definitive agreements to complete the construction of new Westinghouse nuclear reactors in the US with an aggregate value of at least US$80 billion. Further excerpt: Additionally, in recognition of the anticipated acceleration of long-term value creation that the US Government is expected to help unlock by deploying its financial, regulatory, policy and diplomatic tools to support the objectives of the partnership, if, on or prior to January 2029 the Participation Interest has vested, and if the valuation in an initial public offering (IPO) of Westinghouse is expected to be US$30 billion or more at that time, the US Government will be entitled to require an (IPO). Immediately prior to, or in connection with the IPO, the Participation Interest will directly or indirectly convert into a warrant, with a five-year term, to purchase equity securities equivalent to 20% of the public value of the IPO entity at the time of exercise after deducting US$17.5 billion from the public value.
November 3, 2025 at 7:14 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Yikes, this is bad.
October 31, 2025 at 8:43 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Uh, wut. Do I have this right? You have sent me email to inform me that unless I specifically say "no", you will use AI to take my work and turn it into a comic?
Screenshot of email from Academia.edu. It says, "Our AI turned your paper 'Future Food: bioengineering' into a shareable comic." In small print it says, "Don't want AI to create outputs of your papers? Change AI Settings." In this way letting me know that this website, which five years ago I gave permission to share some old work of mine, now has AI settings I have to tinker with.
October 31, 2025 at 8:40 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Donald Trump, 9/26/25 vs. RFKJr., 10/29/25.
Trump Truth Social post: "Pregnant women, don't use Tylenol unless absolutely necessary, don't give Tylenol to your young child for virtually any reason, break up the MMR shot into three totally separate shots (not mixed!), take chicken p shot separately, take hepatitis b shot at 12 years old, or older, and importantly, take vaccine in 5 separate medical visits! President DJT Headline in USA Today: Health Kennedy Secretary says there's "not sufficient" proof to show Tylenol causes autism. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., head of Health and Human Services, says Tylenol should be used with caution during pregnancy, but solid data linking it to autism is lacking.
October 30, 2025 at 2:02 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Truly, we live in wondrous times. www.semafor.com/article/10/2...
Excerpt from article: He is, instead, a 59-year-old Long Island wine importer named Bill DeBlasio, who merely responded to an email from a journalist seeking his views on Democrat Zohran Mamdani’s policies. “I’m Bill DeBlasio. I’ve always been Bill DeBlasio,” DeBlasio said in an interview conducted Wednesday evening through his Ring doorbell in Huntington Station, Long Island, from his current location in Florida.
October 30, 2025 at 2:49 AM
charlescmann.bsky.social
It is indeed Impressive that this reporter was trying to make something of a politician appealing to group of potential voters from an ethnic group by pronouncing their homeland's name correctly, and using that attempt (and flattery of those potential voters) as a lede.
NYTimes article lede: By Jeremy W. Peters Oct. 28, 2025 It wasn’t so much what Zohran Mamdani said. It was how he said it. “We’re going to stand up for Haiti, because you taught the world about freedom!” the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York exclaimed to an elated crowd at a Haitian music festival in June, fresh off his upset victory in the primary. Mr. Mamdani pronounced the island nation’s name “AH-ee-tee” — near-perfect Creole elocution. “When I heard him say that, I smiled,” recalled Brian Purnell, one of Mr. Mamdani’s former professors at Bowdoin College. He also noted that Mr. Mamdani’s reference to freedom was a nod to Haiti’s status as the first republic founded by former slaves.
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Of all the anti-vaxx arguments, this one is IMO the stupidest. There aren't a large number of childhood vaccinations because pharma makes money on them, there's a large number of childhood vaccinations because there's a large number of childhood diseases. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/u...
Excerpt from NY Times article: They said their vaccine skepticism was not shaken at all by the measles outbreak in West Texas this year, the largest in the United States since 2000. Hundreds were infected. Two young girls died. Instead, parents spoke of their belief that a financial motivation must be behind the number of required vaccines, echoing Mr. Kennedy. “You used to trust the government’s science — in my opinion, it’s all money driven now,” said Gianni Amato, who is married to a nurse and wonders if his son became autistic as a result of being vaccinated.
October 28, 2025 at 1:55 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Weird feeling when you go to a museum and there's a giant platinum-clad bronze statue of somebody you've actually met. (Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines, Jr., a Nipmuc traditional architect and canoemaker.)
October 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Amherst, MA. 7:55 a.m.
Morning light streaming through red-gold leaves of maple trees.
October 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
I didn't say that it was "correct." I said it was understandable that media outlets didn't cover it at the same time that they were covering the debate and the ICE arrests. I'm glad they went back and looked at it.

You said, they "just decided not to cover" it. Do you still believe that?
October 24, 2025 at 1:30 AM
charlescmann.bsky.social
The coverage of the AI ad may not have been as prominent as one might think it should be, but I read about it in my NY Times this morning, as part of a long, prominently featured article about Cuomo's increasingly grimdark portrayal of what is supposedly happening in NYC and the election.
Section of article describing AI ad: Around the same time the debate was airing, his campaign posted, and then took down, an A.I.-generated video depicting Mr. Mamdani’s supporters as trespassers, domestic abusers, pimps, drug dealers and drunken drivers — as well as a shoplifter depicted by a Black character in a kaffiyeh. Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for the campaign, said the video “was posted in error” and “wasn’t done yet.” Lede paragraphs of article: By Dana Rubinstein Oct. 23, 2025, 3:00 a.m. ET When former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo returned to the political arena in March as a candidate for mayor of New York City, he commemorated the moment with a 17-minute video describing the city as a place whose denizens nervously avoid eye contact with mentally ill homeless people as they walk past empty storefronts into foreboding subway stations. Now, with less than two weeks until New Yorkers elect their next mayor, Mr. Cuomo has darkened the narrative further. Fashioning himself a 21st-century Cassandra, Mr. Cuomo has unspooled a grim prophecy for a city that seems poised to elect as its mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist half his age. Headline and subhed of article: Cuomo Paints Dire Picture of New York Under Mamdani as Election Nears Andrew Cuomo is trying to close ground in the New York City mayor’s race by escalating his warnings that “mayhem” would follow a victory by Zohran Mamdani.
October 23, 2025 at 2:03 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Thinking on this because I saw on the Other Place someone talk about how we need to make our cities better, more functional, more beautiful--a view I 100% agree with--and then posted this image as his idea of what such a city would look like, and I was, uh, no. No more fake neoclassical. thanks.
Apparently AI generated image of a "beautiful city" that shows a big pileup of neoclassical buildings with fluted marble columns and kitschy fake gas lamps casting a warm glow and mullioned windows, and it makes me want to say, Dude, we don't live in 1780, we have steel and know about things like vapor barriers and this stuff just doesn't cut it.
October 22, 2025 at 3:06 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
We need more inspiration images of a beautiful future. I personally love Olalekan Jeyifous's revamped Lagos that takes what's already there (a great, messy city) and joyfully builds on its amazing street life and bricolage neighborhoods.
Olalekan Jeyifous, "Shanty Mega-Structures of Lagos, Nigeria" (2021). Jeyifous, a Nigerian-American architect/planner, is seeking to create visions of our urban future that build on local traditions to create beautiful spaces that reflect their history and culture--and are not all based on European neo-classical or modernist languages. Olalekan Jeyifous, "Shanty Mega-Structures of Lagos, Nigeria" (2021). View from above shows an intersection crowded with electric taxis and people. At the four corners are swooping patchwork apartment buildings with walkways looping around them and plants all over the place--a wonderful apartment building that builds on Lagos's indigenous shanty architecture. Olalekan Jeyifous, "Shanty Mega-Structures of Lagos, Nigeria" (2021). In this collage image, people shop in a street market while above them is an airy, roughly cylindrical skyscraper that lets through breezes and is covered with growing things, with the paneled walls evoking the patchwork aesthetic of Lagos's slums. A key part of this project is using the architecture of the poor an an inspiration for the future.
October 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Because price controls worked out so well for Richard Nixon.

Thank goodness these folks are fighting socialist menaces like Mamdani.
CNBC headline: Trump Administration will set price floors across range of industries to Combat China, Bessent Says.
October 17, 2025 at 2:30 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
The amazing speed and dexterity with which email spammers convert current news into opportunities for fraud is so hard to reconcile with the equally amazing clumsiness of their execution.
Email spam sent to me this morning: My name is MacKenzie Scott Tuttle, I am an American novelist and philanthropist, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who later became the founder and CEO of Amazon. I believe strongly in"giving while living". My philosophy about life is that you shoulduse your wealth to help people and I have decided to secretly give US$1,500,000.00USD to randomly selected individuals worldwide. On receipt of this email, you should count yourself as the lucky individual. Your email address was chosen online while searching at random. Kindly get back to me at your earliest convenience, so as i will know your email address is valid. Visit the web page to know more about me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKenzie_Bezos Regards, Miss MacKenzie Scott. Tuttle
October 16, 2025 at 8:40 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
9/11 Memorial, Napa, CA.
Woman who is part of tour group riding ATV covered with a sequined horse costume (the scooter, not the person) visits a memorial in Napa made from steel girder pieces from the North Tower.
October 12, 2025 at 11:22 PM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Government by dorm-room insight.
October 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
charlescmann.bsky.social
Just saw this from Hegseth. Wild that he's going there. Even Teddy Roosevelt, no cringing pacifist, called Wounded Knee a "massacre ... [native women], children, unarmed Indians, and armed Indians who had surrendered were killed, sometimes cold-bloodedly and with circumstances of marked brutality."
Tweet from Pete Hegseth: "Under my direction, the soldiers who fought at the Battle of Wounded Knee will keep their medals. This decision is final. Their place in history is settled." Which, the last bit, kinda true. Snippet from Aida Donald's Lion in the White House. Quote is from Roosevelt's defense of the military in the Philippines. He says "nothing had occurred as bad as ... the massacre... at Wounded Knee." At Wounded Knee, Roosevelt recalled, "squaws, children, unarmed Indians, and armed Indians who had surrendered were killed, sometimes cold-bloodedly, and with circumstances of marked brutality."
October 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM