The Gift
he walked into the bakery to buy bread
a big man
well worn cowboy hat
gentle face
we were sitting at a table
drinking our papaya juice
and talking to the dona behind the counter
he turned to us and said
“uma cancao”
and he began to sing in a soft sweet voice
he sang of his seventy-three years
he sang of his growing up
he sang of his family and the death of his wife
he sang of his travels
and he sang of his cows
I didn’t understand all the words
but I understood his song and marveled at its beauty
when he finished singing he just smiled at us
took his bread
and walked out of the bakery
there remained a silence
that was filled
with the gift of his song
by Robert Markey
from Poems From Brazil
2015
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.
A
Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston.
Trump’s assault on the old global order is real. But in taking its measure, it’s necessary to look beyond the daily headlines and acknowledge that being in a state of crisis is nothing new to capitalism. It’s also important to note that, as Karl Marx wrote in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please.” Even would-be authoritarians who occupy the Oval Office have to operate in the social, economic and political environment that is bequeathed to them. In Trump’s case, the inheritance was one in which global capitalism was already suffering from a crisis of legitimacy.
Kanakia isn’t the only one playing with fiction on Substack. The National Book Award winner 
OpenAI is best known for ChatGPT — the free-to-use, 
In my last substack piece I discussed the need for voice of labor in influencing the R & D decisions of companies in shaping the pattern of innovations in a labor-absorbing direction—otherwise increasingly more powerful AI is likely to make most workers redundant in their current jobs and tasks. In the latter eventuality how will people survive in that not-too-distant future? The Big Tech entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley and elsewhere—which include some avowed libertarians (though being libertarian has not usually stopped them from lobbying for large government contracts) and some open supporters of political parties with neo-Nazi roots—have often suggested a simple solution: Universal Basic Income (UBI).
Have you ever noticed how someone who’s drop-dead gorgeous can also seem charming, honest and kind – even before they’ve said a word? That’s the halo effect, a common psychological bias where one trait (such as good looks) influences your impressions of someone’s other qualities. The halo effect was first systematically studied by the psychologist Edward Thorndike more than a century ago. In 1920, Thorndike reported that when he analysed the judgments of military officers evaluating their subordinates, their ratings of intelligence, leadership and physical qualities tended to blur together. If a subordinate excelled in one area, the evaluator was inclined to think he was exceptional in all of them. The effect shows up in many different fields, including social psychology, clinical psychology, child psychology, health, politics and marketing. The ‘attractiveness halo effect’ is what happens when a physically beautiful person also seems interesting, capable and good-natured. It’s as if we’re wired to judge books by their covers, even if we know we shouldn’t.
That willingness to abandon democracy can be traced to two primary causes: the disillusionment of some people with the democratic system, and the demagoguery of autocratic politicians. The disenchantment is found in people who believe that democratic government is leaving them 
AMERICA IS A LAND OF BEGINNINGS, impatient, virginal, suspicious of foreplay. Sales are clinched on first impressions; books judged by covers; presidents, on their first one hundred days. The critic, novelist, and short story writer Lynne Tillman is an author who refreshingly resists our national logic of instant gratification. What might initially seem like a “theatrical” tendency to keep the audience at arm’s length soon gives way, as the Irish novelist Colm Tóibín once observed, to something “kinder and more considerate and oddly vulnerable.” In a Tillman story, everything can come together in the final line, and often does. In a land of beginnings, here is a master of elegant endings, the rare writer who can construct entire plots (or rather, “plots”) from false starts. By design, her stories unfold with the knowledge that she may lose some ticket holders at the intermission—but also with the confidence that those who mutiny will be the poorer for it. As usual, Tillman is correct.
Add a little-known species of assassin bugs to the list of animals that can fashion and wield tools. And true to their name, 
L