The Week: What Caught Our Eye

March 25, 2023

I think that I shall never see; A poem lovely as a tree. — Joyce Kilmer. (Photo by: John Bulmer)

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Can your human intelligence stand one more thing about the artificial stuff?

There’s been a lot in the news lately about artificial intelligence and how mind-bogglingly useful and pervasive it is. AI already is in our every-day lives  — every time you hail a ride, shop online or marvel about how well the Internet predicts your taste in movies and music. AI helps offer instant answers and advice, manage our schedules, and write routine emails faster than we can. It has evolved to offer help in creating drafts, outlines, and lists of important points. It can create videos, music and images to communicate ideas quickly and efficiently. It’s not perfect, as Lesley Stahl showed on 60 Minutes, but the work is a pretty good in speeding up the gathering of ideas, designing and drafting. (Of course, you need to be on your guard more than ever against deepfakes). So, we gave it a whirl. We asked the AI startup product ChatGPT (Google’s in the game now, too) to tell us what’s the best part about living in Upstate New York, and its answers were lightning fast and comprehensive.

WHEN EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH: He was the sweet-natured, toe-headed tyke on the day care center swings. But as he grew up, he found his way into drugs, suffered from mental illness, ended up on the streets, in and out of treatment and rehab, in and out of the hospital, a loving and sensitive kid to the end, tragically enslaved by dependency. New York State Writers Institute Director Paul Grondahl chronicles the struggles of a family that did everything they could to save their son from addiction.

CHILD MORTALITY CLIMBS: The mortality rate for people 19 and under in the United States — on the decline for decades thanks to improvements in medical care and in the safety of consumer products — spiked 10.7 percent from 2019 to 2020, and another 8.3 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the fastest rates of increase in 50 years. Although the pandemic did not initiate these trends, the authors write, it may have been an accelerant — injury mortality at ages 10 to 19 years rose by 22.6% between 2019 and 2020. Much of this surge involved homicides, which increased by 39.1%, and deaths from drug overdoses, which increased by 113.5%. “We are at a point where the threat to children’s health is not coming from a microorganism or a cancer cell,” Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, lead author of the report, told The Hill. “It’s coming from bullets and drugs and cars.” 

THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK: The Biden White House needed a little pep talk this week, and who better to deliver it than Ted Lasso? (“I do love a locker room. It smells like potential.”) Jason Sudeikis actually was to there to raise awareness about mental health. The next day, more guests: the Boss and President Selina Meyer. President Biden was bestowing National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals on several actors, musicians and writers, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bruce Springsteen, Gladys Knight, Amy Tan and Colson Whitehead.

POLITICAL SCIENCE: Speaking of President Biden, you may recall that, in 2020, the decidedly apolitical journal Nature waded into politics with an endorsement of Biden, arguing that his trust in “truth, evidence, science and democracy make him the only choice in the US election.” Other prestigious scientific publications broke from tradition to endorse Biden as well. It’s hard to say whether the endorsement from Nature persuaded any voters, but it did have one noticeable effect — it made supporters of former President Trump who were aware of the endorsement skeptical of Nature and more distrustful of scientists generally. “Why bother editorializing?” Jack Shafer opines in Politico. “Doesn’t seem very scientific.” Nature defended its decision, writing “when candidates threaten a retreat from reason, science must speak out.”

PARADIGM SHIFTER: The numbers are eye-opening: In 2020, author Matthew Desmond writes in his new book, Poverty, By America, the federal government spent more than $193 billion on subsidies for homeowners. You might think, sounds like a big investment in poverty reduction. And it would be, except that, in Desmond’s words, “most families who enjoy this benefit have six-figure incomes and are white.” $53 billion was spent on direct housing assistance for low-income families, not even close to addressing the level of need. Desmond, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Evicted, about families struggling to stay housed, has numerous other examples of how an array of subsidies, tax structures and policies perversely perpetuate poverty in America. He argues that ordinary Americans have a role to play in addressing these issues. “Poverty in America is not simply the result of actions taken by Congress and corporate boards,” Desmond told NPR, “but the millions of decisions we make each day when going about our business.”

STATE MUSEUM IS A RELIC: Popular exhibits closed. Escalators and elevators broken. No place to grab lunch. The State Museum is supposed to be a glittering jewel of an attraction in the heart of New York’s capital city, but instead, Times Union columnist Chris Churchill laments, it “feels forgotten” and is “embarrassing.” He wonders what happened to the exciting renovations that were promised years ago, and while waiting for answers, “let me suggest that lawmakers around for the legislative session take a walk across Empire State Plaza to look at the state of the State Museum. Once inside, they should ask themselves: Is this the best New York can do?” On the bright side, no one is questioning the State Museum’s reputation and acquisition practices, something that can’t be said for New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

OFF HIS PEDESTAL: Revolutionary War hero Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler’s statue has stood for nearly 100 years in front of City Hall in Albany, N.Y., but it soon will be removed, a reckoning for his enslavement of 13 people at his Albany mansion and four more at a farm in Saratoga County. A project by a group of students at Albany High School was the impetus for the action. The board of the National Audubon Society, grappling with similar matters involving its namesake, announced after an internal review that it would not change the organization’s name. 

Spring flowers are blooming earlier than usual, which can disrupt the delicate timing and rhythms that interconnected species rely on. (Photo by: Skip Dickstein)

NO TIME TO WASTE: Stepping up his pleas for action on fossil fuels, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling for rich countries to accelerate their target for achieving net zero emissions to as early as 2040, and developing nations to aim for 2050 — about a decade earlier than most current targets. He also called for them to stop using coal by 2030 and 2040, respectively, and ensure carbon-free electricity generation in the developed world by 2035, meaning no gas-fired power plants, either. This week, the Hudson Valley city of Beacon, N.Y., became the third in the state to require all-electric construction for most new buildings and major renovations starting in 2024, with exceptions for hardships. New York City also has a law requiring newly built homes to be all-electric. Ithaca has gone further, vowing to electrify all buildings in the city, public and private, by 2030.

MEANWHILE IN MONTANA, 16 young people, many of them outdoors lovers from rural communities, have sued the state, claiming its support for coal, oil and gas violates their state constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Montana is a major fossil fuel producer, and this will be a first. “There have been almost no trials on climate change,” Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, told The New York Times. “This is the first that will get into the merits of climate change and what needs to be done, and how the state may have to change its policies.” The trial begins June 12.

IT'S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE: No, it’s space debris! A video taken by a bystander in Sacramento last weekend showed seven mysterious streaks of light in the night sky. It turns out, The Smithsonian knew exactly what they were — the remnants of a 683-pound piece of communications equipment that was discarded from the International Space Station in 2020 and spent the next years in orbit. Most space debris completely burns up and disintegrates upon re-entry, and the majority of items fall into the ocean unseen.

THE CIRCUS IS BACK: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is bringing back “The Greatest Show on Earth,” this time without the animals. The Associated Press reports that the re-imagined circus will feature “high wire acts, flying trapeze artists, unicycle riders and skateboarders doing flips and tricks, and a spinning double wheel powered by acrobats and BMX bikes, plus a 360-degree view with live camera feeds and virtual reality that enhance the audience experience.” The circus is expected to stop in Albany, N.Y., sometime in 2024.

SIGN UP TO SUP: Looking for ways to build loyalty and boost revenues, restaurants are increasingly turning to subscription models where diners pay a monthly fee and restaurants throw in some tasty incentives and discounts. Meanwhile, more hotels are giving up the practice of routine daily room cleaning, a pandemic pullback that’s stuck.

LIVES

WILLIS REED anchored championship-winning teams for the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973 and in doing so starred in one of the most iconic moments in sports history. A torn thigh muscle had caused him to miss Game 6 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, but the heavily taped Reed hobbled onto the court and hit his first two shots in Game 7, electrifying both his team and the raucous crowd at Madison Square Garden. Afterward, legendary ABC broadcaster Howard Cosell told Reed, “You exemplify the very best that the human spirit can offer.” A two-time Finals MVP and member of the NBA’s 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams, Reed was 80.

DAVE ZYGLEWICZ was a standout football player at La Salle Institute in Troy, N.Y., before entering the Navy, where he turned his attention to boxing and became one of the best in the world in the heavyweight division. His shot at glory came in 1969, when he challenged Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship in Houston. The bout was a mismatch — Zyglewicz, known as Ziggy, was on the canvas 13 seconds in and knocked out midway through the first round — but he and Frazier remained lifelong friends. Zyglewicz, who was 32-4 in his pro career, ran a bar, Ziggy's Corner, in his hometown of Watervliet, that over the years welcomed a who’s-who of heavyweight boxing stars. He was 79.

CHARLENE CUVA would have entered the convent the next day but for a blind date the night before. She met Joseph Cuva and that changed everything. They married on August 19, 1967, in Troy, N.Y., and for the last 50 years lived in Greenfield, Saratoga County. She became a founding member of Gateway Church of Corinth, a home school teacher, a tutor and creative artist and, along with her husband, a spiritual minister to the community. She died in an apparent accident when, police said, she was struck by a bullet from a gun her husband was handling in another room. She was 74. 

ALMOST FINAL WORDS

“Neighborhoods aren’t neighborhoods when it feels like 60% of the houses on my block are empty during the week. Who is going to bring me soup if I get sick on a Tuesday?”
—    Deborah DeWan of Woodstock, N.Y., on the impact newcomers and second-home buyers are having on communities and services in the Hudson Valley.

THE SIGNOFF

HUNGER PAINS: Two prisoners escaped from a jail in Newport News, Va., using a modified toothbrush to open a hole in the wall, then scaling the perimeter fence, only to be captured the next morning when they stopped for breakfast at an IHOP 10 miles away.

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Principal Author: Bill Callen. 

Sincere Thanks to Contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Leigh Hornbeck, John Behan, Lisa Fenwick, John Bulmer, Skip Dickstein, Claire P. Tuttle, Tara Hutchins, and ChatGPT.

FACING OUT is what we do. We help companies, organizations and individuals work effectively with their most important external audiences – their customers, their shareholders, their communities, the government and the news media.  www.behancommunications.com

Facing Out features news and other nuggets that caught our eye, and that we thought might be of value to you, our friends and business associates. Some items are good news about our clients and friends, others are stories that we hope will leave you a bit more informed or entertained than you were five minutes ago. As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback. 

Let’s make it a conversation: mark.behan@behancom.com