Mistakes & A Landing

Featured Articles

Life makes mistakes

Aeon • 22 Oct 2024 • ~4700 words

This piece explores the idea that mistakes are an essential and ubiquitous part of being alive, across all living organisms. It delves into questions about the nature of mistakes, how they can occur at various scales from individual organisms to biological subsystems, and how a systematic theory of biological mistakes could provide insights into the normative standards that govern living systems.

Mistake-making organisms, like everything else in the Universe, are made from law-abiding atoms and molecules. So where does mistake-making begin and end in living things? How deep does it go? Can the parts and subsystems of organisms, like immune systems or the platelets in blood, make mistakes too? And, if they do, is there something that connects human mistakes to those made by biological subsystems?

‘Not today’: The twin miracles of Palm Beach

The Sunday Long Read • 17 Oct 2024 • ~7700 words

On May 10, 2022, a routine flight over the Atlantic turned into a harrowing struggle for survival when the pilot of a Cessna Caravan lost consciousness mid-flight. With no flying experience, passengers Darren Harrison and Russ Franck faced the challenge of landing the plane safely. This gripping account explores the tense moments in the cockpit and the teamwork that led to a successful landing.

Patrick Smith, the respected aviation expert and author who has run the AskThePilot website for years, said there is of course no real formula for survival in such moments, but three things help make success possible: A passenger with an instinctive knack for keeping the plane level, for not making the understandable, even irresistible mistake of over controlling; good weather; and somebody who can talk you down. Oh, Smith added, there’s a fourth. “Luck.”

Recommended Articles

The Hotel for the Homeless

Chicago Magazine • 15 Oct 2024 • ~6250 words • Archive Link

In Lincoln Square, as part of a pilot program, an old motel is being transformed as "Haven on Lincoln," which aims to provide housing and wraparound services to homeless individuals struggling with addiction and mental illness. It explores the challenges and debates surrounding the program, as well as the broader issues of homelessness and the city's efforts to address it. Community reactions have been mixed, with some residents expressing skepticism about the program's effectiveness and potential impact on neighborhood safety.

The Diplomat is one of nine motels that remain on Lincoln Avenue. Their decline has been steady since the Edens opened in 1951, and all have devolved from quaint accommodations into something more suspect. Neighbors have only their suspicions about what happens behind the drawn curtains and peeling paint — hunches that are occasionally confirmed when a guest throws something through a window in a fit of rage or the news reports that someone else got shot in the parking lot. But these motels have also evolved to fill gaps in the city’s housing landscape. At around $60 a night (often far less if you’re paying by the month), they’re not necessarily cheaper than a market-rate apartment, but you don’t need a deposit or a credit check. The only thing you need to qualify for a room is cash.

It’s Time to Build the Exoplanet Telescope

Palladium Magazine • 18 Oct 2024 • ~2000 words

This article discusses the potential for building an extremely large space telescope, dubbed the "Monster Scope," that could directly image exoplanets and study their features in unprecedented detail. It argues that with the capabilities of the SpaceX Starship, the time is right to pursue such an ambitious project that could answer fundamental questions about the existence of life elsewhere in the universe and our place in it.

Starship is so capable we should ask ourselves what the true physical limit is to our ability to build enormous telescopes. Assembling colossal mirrors in space sidesteps the gravity and atmosphere problems, so it is time to accept that the scope of our ambition exceeds the scale achievable on the surface of any planet, and use Starship to build transformational observatories in deep space: the Monster Scope has a mirror diameter of 1 kilometer, an unthinkably enormous span of glass enabling us to examine the features of nearby exoplanets with the same detail we can naturally see on the Moon.

Survivor Mission

n+1 • 21 Oct 2024 • ~6400 words

Elias Altman explores the creation of the Memorial to Survivors of Sexual Violence in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It examines how the memorial came to be, the personal stories and trauma behind it, and the broader societal issues around recognizing and supporting survivors of sexual violence. The article raises questions about the role of public memorials in healing trauma and the challenges of ensuring all survivors, regardless of gender, are included and empowered.

Super and Greene agreed that mosaic was an apt medium to express how sexual violence fractures the survivor, while those fragments still add up to something beautiful and whole. Super conceived the idea for a circle of benches to create a space to talk, built on top of concrete with overlapping concentric circles made of small inlaid stones. The circles too were a metaphor. Trauma ripples outward. But so does breaking the silence.

The consequences of large-scale blackouts

Existential Crunch • 21 Oct 2024 • ~3500 words

What happens to society when the power goes out? In this piece, the author delves into the insights from a German book that explores the far-reaching consequences of potential large-scale blackouts. By examining various sectors such as healthcare, transportation, and communication, the article reveals how interconnected our systems are—and how quickly everything can unravel.

Overall, the book gives quite a devastating account of what would happen after a blackout. People would lose access to food, transportation, healthcare and communication. The water system would probably continue to function at least somewhat and there would probably still be some cash to pay for things locally. The only thing that seems to be really resilient to a blackout is the stock market and your bank account. So, you might not have something to eat, but it seems that you can rest assured the bank keeps track of your debt even if everything around you crumbles.

The magnificent Swiss 10-centime coin

Moneyness • 21 Oct 2024 • ~1550 words

This piece discusses the remarkable stability of the Swiss 10-centime coin, which has maintained the same size, design, and metal composition since its introduction in 1879. It compares the 10-centime's endurance to the changing metal content of other coins like the U.S. nickel, and explores how factors like the strength of the Swiss franc have allowed the 10-centime to avoid the fate of being melted down for its metal value. .

Zoom forward 150 years or so to 2024 and the market value of this three grams of cupronickel has more than doubled from 1.2 centimes to 2.8 centimes. That's a big jump, but still far below – 7.2 centime's worth – the coin's ten-centime face value. Given that plenty of headroom remains, Gresham's law won't be kicking in any time soon. I'd hazard that the cupronickel 10-centime has a few more decades of life, unless the Swiss give up on using cash before then and simply cancel their coinage altogether.

The Ghosts of John Tanton

ProPublica • 19 Oct 2024 • ~7700 words

The article examines how the far-right in the United States is increasingly using environmental concerns, specifically climate change, to justify their anti-immigrant agenda. It traces the origins of this movement back to John Tanton, a Sierra Club environmentalist who believed that population growth, especially immigration, was detrimental to the environment and white American culture. Tanton's network of organizations, including FAIR and NumbersUSA, have promoted the idea that immigrants are a burden on the environment and that restricting immigration is essential to protecting the planet.

He pointed to “White Genocide.” He described climate change and immigration as parts of the same problem and decried “rampant urbanization and industrialization, ever expanding cities and shrinking forests, a complete removal of man from nature.” To Tarrant, conserving the purity of lands was indistinguishable from conserving white European ideals and beliefs. And he was well aware of the particular pressures at the United States border. “When the white population of the USA realizes the truth of the situation, war will erupt,” he wrote. “Soon the replacement of the whites within Texas will hit its apogee.”

How to Raise Kids With No Punishments

The Atlantic • 22 Oct 2024 • ~3500 words • Archive Link

Chelsey Hauge-Zavaleta advocates for a parenting style that emphasizes connection over discipline, proposing that a gentle approach can lead to better relationships with children. The article explores the nuances of gentle parenting, its potential pitfalls, and how it resonates with modern parents seeking alternatives to traditional approaches. It also examines the challenges and criticisms of this approach, including whether it can lead to entitled or unruly children, and the significant time commitment required of parents to implement it effectively.

In one Zoom group-coaching session I observed, Chelsey asked her parent-clients to close their eyes and imagine sitting at a table with all the materials they'd need to work on a beloved project. “Around the table are all of the people that are the perfectly right people to do this project with,” she said softly. “Maybe you're creating; maybe there's bowls of yarn, or computers, laptops.” Then, suddenly, she started clapping loudly. “Get the laptops, get everything! There's a giant fire! Take that out of the room!” she yelled. Chelsey asked the parents how that felt. They said alarming, panicky, and angry. Chelsey explained that many children are in this state when parents try to transition them from one activity to another too quickly. “The same body sensations happen for our kids,” she explained.

He Died Building a Ship for the U.S. Government. His Family Got Nothing.

ProPublica • 22 Oct 2024 • ~3850 words

Elmer De León Pérez, a welder, lost his life while working on a U.S. government ship in Louisiana, leaving his family without any compensation due to his status as an independent contractor. This investigation reveals some of the complexities of immigration and labor in America, and raises questions about the use of undocumented immigrant labor on government-funded projects, and the failure to hold companies accountable for worker deaths and safety violations.

Pérez’s story is emblematic of a system that relies ever more on immigrants, even as employers and politicians vilify the very people doing work that generates profits and serves the nation. Employers use subcontractors and independent contractors to pass the risks and costs on to the workers, said Laura Padin, director of work structures at the National Employment Law Project. “These companies, particularly in occupations and industries with high rates of health and safety violations, use this to shield themselves from responsibility,” she said. “We also see that they do this with workers who are immigrants if they think they’re undocumented so that they can avoid responsibility for hiring someone who’s undocumented.” The point, Padin said, is to “protect the entity at the top.”

Inside Syria’s YouTube Scene

New Lines Magazine • 21 Oct 2024 • ~5500 words

This article provides an inside look at the YouTube scene in Syria, exploring how Syrian content creators navigate the challenges of creating and monetizing videos under the constraints of war, economic sanctions, and government censorship. It examines the motivations and creative workarounds of these YouTubers, as well as the broader implications of their content for how Syria is portrayed both within and outside the country.

With 90% of Syrians living below the poverty line, the series follows Nadim’s experiences in various low-income service jobs, exploring the daily earnings of these occupations and what they can afford. He works as a taxi driver, busboy, grave digger, car cleaner, hawker, dishwasher and in other menial jobs. From body shop workers enduring grueling 10-hour shifts for a mere $1 a day to taxi drivers struggling to make ends meet, the series paints a vivid picture of hardship. Sometimes it brings surprises, like finding out that a shawarma sous-chef earns nearly four times as much as a government-employed college graduate.

The Panda Factories

New York Times • 15 Oct 2024 • ~4750 words • Archive Link

The giant panda conservation program, once hailed as a model for saving an endangered species, has come under scrutiny. Despite the goal of releasing pandas back into the wild, the reality shows a troubling trend: more pandas have been taken from their natural habitats than have been successfully reintroduced. This article sheds light on the challenges and ethical dilemmas of artificial breeding practices, questioning whether the program truly serves the best interests of the species it aims to protect.

Nearly three decades later, more pandas have been removed from the wild than have been released. Aggressive artificial breeding has injured and even killed pandas. What the program does best is make more cubs for zoos.